How to start a RELEX implementation: 3 essential do’s
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Many retailers and manufacturers are investing in advanced planning platforms to improve forecasting, replenishment and supply chain visibility. One of IG&H’s select partners in this space is RELEX, a unified AI-native platform for end-to-end planning. A successful RELEX implementation depends on strong foundations, clear processes and early engagement. These core principles help ensure the system delivers accurate forecasts and long-term value. Below we highlight three key do’s to set your implementation up for success.
1) Do: Set your business objective
Why this matters
A clear business objective determines how RELEX is configured, what gets prioritized and how success is measured. Without it, teams risk optimizing the system for the wrong outcome.
Before any technical decisions are made, you must understand why you are implementing RELEX and what success looks like. Many organizations move straight into system setup without first agreeing on the business ambition.
Start by being explicit about the problem you want to solve: increasing on‑shelf availability, reducing stockouts, releasing working capital or improving replenishment automation. These choices directly influence configuration, prioritization and effort. Without clarity, teams risk optimizing for the wrong objective.
Defining ambition also means establishing a baseline. If performance is not measured upfront, improvement cannot be proven. Concrete targets, such as increasing availability by X% or reducing stockouts by Y%, create focus and accountability.
Alignment between business and IT is critical at this stage. When supply chain, merchandising, operations and IT agree on outcomes and constraints, RELEX becomes a strategic capability rather than just another system.
2) Do: Start with solid data
Why this matters
RELEX can only deliver reliable forecasts and replenishment recommendations if the underlying data reflects reality.
One of the most common issues we see is misalignment between system data and reality. For example, a system may show 20 units on hand while only 10 are physically available. Replenishment decisions are then based on false assumptions, impacting both availability and customer trust.
However, data quality alone is not enough. Clear data governance and ownership are equally essential. Someone must be accountable for accuracy, consistency and maintenance of critical data. Without ownership, data quality often deteriorates quickly after go‑live.
Key data elements typically include:
Historical sales and purchase data
Current and historical stock levels
Promotion calendars
Product hierarchies and categories
Supplier lead times
Store or location attributes
Addressing data quality and governance early prevents surprises later and, more importantly, builds trust in the system. When planners trust the data, they act on recommendations instead of correcting errors, shifting focus from firefighting to performance improvement.
3) Do: Empower a strong project team
Why this matters
A RELEX implementation succeeds or fails based on the capability, authority and leadership of the project team. A strong process team has: process expertise, change leadership and decision authority.
Process expertise
The implementation team must understand how the supply chain actually operates, not just how it is documented. At the same time, not every existing process should be replicated. Processes that exist because of system limitations, manual effort or lack of visibility are often the very issues RELEX is meant to solve. Replicating them through customization only locks inefficiencies into a new platform. As a rule of thumb, RELEX should support business intent, not historical workarounds.
Example: Replenishment planning
In some organizations, planners manually override forecasts because legacy systems fail to account for promotions or demand patterns. Treating this behavior as a fixed requirement can lead to complex customization.
A better approach is to address the root cause by adopting automated forecasting and exception‑based planning best practices. This shifts planners from constant manual intervention to monitoring exceptions.
To design a solution that is both scalable and supportable, the team must also determine how closely the customer’s processes can align with best practices. Standard configurations are interconnected, and even small deviations can create downstream effects. Understanding what is needed to stay as close as possible to best practice and where alignment may not be feasible helps ensure the chosen approach delivers the most long‑term value.
When the team understands the full process landscape, they can evaluate proposed changes carefully and ensure the system supports daily operations instead of disrupting them.
Change leadership
Implementing RELEX is not only a system implementation but also an operational change. During the project, organizations often discover that some processes need to be adjusted. For example, planners may need to rely more on automated forecasts, replenishment rules may need to be standardized across regions or manual Excel-based steps may need to disappear. These changes can create resistance if teams feel processes are being imposed on them.
A strong project team needs the credibility and leadership to guide the organization through these changes. This means explaining the benefits, involving key users early and helping teams understand how the new way of working will support them. When the project team can both design the system and guide the operational change, adoption becomes significantly easier.
Decision authority
To keep momentum, the team must have the authority to make decisions within clear boundaries. When every process adjustment requires escalation, progress slows and opportunities are lost, from replenishment effectiveness in stores to production and supply continuity upstream.
Imagine a RELEX consultant questioning an existing process for order criteria. If the issue must be escalated, it can easily take two or three weeks before anything happens. Empowered teams resolve issues quickly, maintain flow and keep the implementation focused on value delivery.
A successful RELEX implementation is not defined by how quickly the system goes live, but by the value it delivers once it does. By setting a clear business objective, building a solid data foundation and empowering a project team with the right expertise, leadership and decision authority, you create the conditions for lasting impact. This approach enables supply chain professionals to trust the system, adopt new ways of working and focus on what truly matters: improving availability, efficiency and resilience across the supply chain.
Author: Christiaan Kamphuis
Curious about how IG&H can help you get ahead - as both a sector expert and your implementation partner? Let's talk RELEX.
Jasper van Rijn
Managing Director Retail & Products
+31653376760