Monica’s Bakery, a hypothetical company used in the Predictor examples, is a rapidly growing bakery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since the opening, Monica has kept careful records (in a Microsoft Excel workbook) of the sales of her three main products: French bread, Italian bread, and pizza. With these records, she can better predict her sales, control her inventory, market her products, and make strategic, long-term decisions.
To open Monica’s workbook, select Help, then Crystal Ball, then Examples Guide, and then select Monica's Bakery. (In Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, select Resources in the Help group and then select Examples Guide).
The workbook has worksheets for sales data, operations, and cash flow. The Sales Data worksheet contains all the historical sales data that is available for forecasting. The Operations worksheet calculates the amount of different ingredients required to make different quantities of three breads. The Cash Flow worksheet calculates how much money the bakery has to spend on various capital projects. The Labor Costs worksheet estimates the increase in hourly wages to decide whether to invest in labor-saving equipment.
The following examples track Monica's decision-making processes as she uses Predictor to work through both short-term and long-term decisions:
For more detailed product tutorials, see Predictor Tutorials.