The president of a small manufacturing firm has been concerned about the continual growth in manufacturing costs over the past several years. The following is a time series of the cost per unit (in...

The president of a small manufacturing firm has been concerned about the continual growth in manufacturing costs over the past several years. The following is a time series of the cost per unit (in dollars) for the firm’s leading product over the past eight years:





a. Graph this time series. Does a linear trend appear?
b. Develop the equation for the linear trend component for the time series. What is the average cost increase peryear?