Common RFP questions: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing for manufacturers

RELEX Solutions has compiled this reference list of common RFP questions and answers concerning the RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing solution for manufacturers. This page provides detailed information about the Demand Planning & Sensing software’s modules and capabilities. 

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing helps manufacturers accurately anticipate demand, plan production and distribution with confidence, and execute strategic commercial decisions that:

• Increase sales. 
• Improve on-time delivery accuracy. 
• Reduce inventory carrying costs. 
• Decrease spoilage and waste. 
• Save manual planning time and effort. 

Overview table of RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing capabilities

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing capabilities	Description of capabilities	Benefits
Machine-learning based forecasting	Automates ML-based forecasting at SKU/day granularity and aggregates up to a 24-month time horizon.	– Improves forecast accuracy for both short-term and long-term decisions. – Reduces manual planning effort through more efficient, “touchless” planning.
Channel-specific forecasting	Incorporates multiple factors (baselines, weekday and seasonal profiles, demand level shifts, events, and past promotions) and integrates customer-provided, channel-level order forecasts.	– Boosts channel-specific service levels. – Minimizes stockouts and overstocks.
Causal factor integration	Incorporates causal factors such as promotions, retail POS demand signals, weather, cannibalization, and halo effects.	– Better identifies demand drivers and anticipates shifts. – Improves responsiveness. – Minimizes costly expedited shipments and waste.
Modeling for intermittent demand	Uses pooled models that combine the sales histories of similar slow-moving products to identify demand trends and patterns.	– Improves forecast accuracy. – Ensures availability for slow movers while avoiding excess safety stock.
New product forecasting and product lifecycle management	Automatically determines references for new product introductions and optimizes ramp-down plans.	– Ensures faster, more reliable launch planning with fewer ramp-up stockouts and a lower risk of obsolescence.
Automatic data preprocessing and cleansing	Cleans data and detects outliers and level shifts to eliminate data quality issues.	– Makes data usable and effective without significant manual effort, time, and oversight. – Improves forecast quality and trustworthiness by reducing errors caused by incorrect history.
Intuitive, configurable dashboards with exception management	Allows planners to review, adjust, aggregate, and share forecasts, manage exceptions, and determine timely, strategic responses to anomalies.	– Focuses planner attention on pivotal decisions instead of routine maintenance tasks. – Gives manufacturers more control over service levels, inventory levels, and working capital investments.
Forecast sharing	Offers manual or automated exports so teams can collaborate with the latest information.	– Aligns customers and internal stakeholders, enhancing coordination. – Improves on-time, in-full (OTIF) rates through shared expectations.
Scenario planning	Allows users to run what-if demand scenarios and compare plans before selecting and executing the best choice.	– Helps planners visualize, measure, and balance the impacts of various planning decisions on overall business KPIs.
Demand sensing and promotion integration	Anticipates and registers the impact of additional demand signals and promotional inputs.	– Improves short-term forecasts for fast-moving markets and long-term strategy alignment. – Improves promo forecast accuracy to reduce stockouts during campaigns and excess stock afterwards.
In-house configurability	Gives manufacturers the ability to set and adjust automated rules and workflows via the RELEX business rules engine (BRE), a graphical interface.	– Increases planning transparency and scalability through controlled automation. – Allows companies to update software versions without upsetting established workflows, ensuring business continuity and adaptability.

What are RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing’s general forecasting and calculation capabilities?

Here are some questions and answers pertaining to general capabilities and applications of RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing in the manufacturing industry.

1. Q: Describe the forecasting engine and automation capabilities in RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing.

A: In RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing, the forecasting engine uses advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms and intelligent data mining techniques to automatically identify demand drivers, calculate their impacts, and generate highly accurate forecasts at the SKU-customer-day level. The system also automatically maintains data quality and makes it easy for demand planners to review, understand, and control forecast calculations and decisions.

Automation and advanced machine learning

RELEX’s ML models identify demand drivers using sales history, transaction data, contextual data, item and location data, and external data. These demand drivers include:

• Demand patterns, such as seasonality, trends, and weekday variations.
• Business decisions, such as changes in promotions and pricing.
• External factors, such as holidays, weather, local events, and competitor activities.

Combing these variables and parameters, the RELEX model calculates granular forecasts that planners can flexibly aggregate across any product, location, time period, or custom attribute level.

Data sets and data quality

RELEX’s proprietary in-memory database provides the computational power needed to forecast at scale, allowing the system to accommodate manufacturers’ growing data pools and business needs.

RELEX also employs automatic data cleansing and model regularization methods to separate true demand signals from noise. It separates stockouts, clear outliers, and flagged one-time events from recurring demand influencers and their estimated impacts. By doing so, RELEX prevents overfitting and model distortion, ensuring reliable daily forecasts. RELEX also has automatic changepoint detectors to identify significant changes in demand, including sudden step changes and trends.

Planner review and control 

RELEX is not a “black box” solution. Demand planners have full visibility into the guidelines and criteria that guide the system’s calculations and recommendations. RELEX users can easily interact with the demand forecast and apply their expertise, adjusting and mass-updating forecasts at any level of aggregation based on visual monitoring and alerts. This level of transparency and control builds trust and increases user adoption.

2. Q: Explain RELEX’s demand sensing capabilities and their applications.

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing gathers near-term demand signals pertaining to weather, promotions, events, cannibalization, halo effects, and other factors. Manufacturers can use and aggregate these up-to-date inputs to increase forecast accuracy, adjust quickly to market changes, and improve long-term plans with a more reliable understanding of overall trends.

With RELEX’s demand sensing capabilities, manufacturers can: 

• Reduce bullwhip effects and increase planning efficiency. 
• Improve service levels. 
• Reduce inventory levels and free up working capital. 
• Balance production and purchasing plans. 
• Strengthen IBP decisions and develop scalable, actionable growth strategies. 

3. Q: How does the RELEX system create a reliable baseline of data and continuously improve data quality? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing is designed to minimize the manual data preprocessing burden. The system performs automated data cleansing and model regularization as a standard part of the forecasting process, requiring minimal manual effort to maintain data quality. 

Automated data correction types 

The following correction types are applied automatically based on available master data: 

• Promotion and event sales corrections. 
• Clearance sales corrections. 
• Stockout sales corrections. 
• Statistical outlier corrections. 

Manual corrections can also be applied by users when needed. Exceptional events and promotion impacts can be surfaced as exceptions or through use-case-specific dashboards. RELEX stores sales and correction data for as long as required, enabling teams to view and analyze outlier history over time.

Continuous data quality improvement 

By its nature, the RELEX forecasting engine is automated and learns from data continuously, minimizing the need for ongoing manual intervention. Most user actions relate to maintaining data quality through exception-based processes — for example, scoping out a segment of sales history that is not representative of true demand. This approach keeps data quality high without requiring a dedicated data science team. 

4. Q: Can RELEX users control demand forecast granularity and aggregation? 

A: Yes, demand planners using RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing can configure dashboards and view granular forecasts across all combinations of products and hierarchies. They can aggregate forecasts to any product location, time period, or custom attribute level and can filter based on any attribute. They can also build and save views and reports around their most critical KPIs.

5. Q: How does RELEX calculate lower-level forecasts from aggregate forecasts? 

A: If a planner applies mass updates to forecasts at a higher level of aggregation, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing automatically and proportionally distributes that forecast down to the product-location group level. The system uses the previous forecast’s distribution patterns to calculate the percentage of demand each location should receive, ensuring updates are correct without manual recalculation at every level. 

6. Q: How does RELEX Demand Planning and Sensing identify and predict demand for different product profiles and demand classes? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing automatically identifies the best forecasting algorithm for each product-location by analyzing historical demand patterns, including seasonal, non-seasonal, erratic, and lumpy demand profiles. It also ranks suitable alternative algorithms, providing transparency into the selection process. 

These algorithms identify key demand drivers across multiple data sources: 

• Historical data, such as sales, deliveries, inventory balances, and assortment status. 
• Contextual data, such as calendars, holidays, price and promotion history, and weather. 
• Item and location data, such as product hierarchies and merchandising information. 

RELEX calculates a forecast incorporating seasonality, trends, and changepoints for every product-location in the active assortment. 

7. Can the RELEX forecast correct itself as external conditions and demand patterns shift? 

A: Yes, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing updates forecasts daily and continuously recalibrates models as new demand data accumulates, allowing the system to self-correct as conditions change.

8. Q: Does the RELEX system support demand scenario creation? 

A: Yes. RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing supports what-if scenario modeling and simulation at both volume and value levels. The system provides two kinds of scenario testing. 

1. Working copy simulations: Users can run simulations in their own personal working copy of the production environment, which is separate from the finalized, approved plan. Changes in a user’s working copy are visible only to that user until they are explicitly accepted or rejected, so scenario testing never disrupts the live plan. This approach allows the user to test the downstream impact of parameter-level changes before committing. 
2. Simultaneous scenario comparison: The scenario planning user interface (UI) allows users to compare multiple scenarios simultaneously. For instance, let’s say they want to test different growth assumptions to see the respective impacts on margin and inventory. Planners can test and compare different scenarios at once and then merge the preferred scenario into the master plan. 

9. Q: How does the RELEX system support forecast consumption? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing’s versatile forecast consumption method allows forecasts to be saved or removed according to predefined rules over a specified period.  

For instance, the demand sensing capability detects when sales deviate significantly from a specific forecast or from a promotion baseline. It then triggers automatic forecast adjustments.  

Distinct rulesets can be applied to different product assortments to ensure optimal inventory management across all categories. 

10. Q: How does the RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing solution work with constrained and unconstrained demand signals? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing supports both constrained and unconstrained forecast versions, so demand planners can flexibly balance demand signals with supply realities. 

• Unconstrained forecasts incorporate all available demand drivers without supply-related limitations, providing a clear view of true market demand.
• Constrained forecasts apply all supply constraints, such as capacity limits, minimum order quantities, or container restrictions, and adjust projections according. For example, in cases of supply scarcity, RELEX can smooth order proposals over time to build inventory levels ahead of a demand peak, rather than triggering large, disruptive orders.

How does RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing handle specific forecasting use cases?

This section pertains to the application of RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing for specific manufacturing use cases, such as managing lifecycles and planning around event-based demand changes, slow-moving products, and different packaging requirements, bills of materials, and recipes.

1. Q: How does RELEX forecast event-based demand changes?

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing monitors and adjusts event-based forecasts through a combination of exception management and flexible workflows. 

For active events, such as a temporary price change or promotional campaign, the system tracks daily sales against the event forecast and flags deviations when accuracy falls below a defined threshold. Planners receive an alert and can intervene directly, adjusting the forecast for the remaining event period based on early-performance data. This feedback loop allows manufacturers to course-correct quickly, reducing the risk of under- or over-supply. 

2. Q: How does RELEX forecast slow-moving products?

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides tailored forecasting and inventory methods specifically designed for slow-moving products with sparse or irregular demand data. These methods include pooled models, inventory pooling, and dynamic safety stock management.

Pooled forecasting models 

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing uses pooled models to group the data from product-locations with similar attributes and estimate common demand patterns such as seasonality or promotional effects. This approach compensates for the lack of sufficient individual product-location data and produces more stable, reliable forecasts for niche, seasonal, or slow-moving SKUs. 

Inventory pooling and centralized replenishment 

Instead of stocking slow movers across every location, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing allows manufacturers to pool inventory at the distribution center-level or align replenishment across locations using coordination groups. This strategy reduces total safety stock requirements without jeopardizing target service levels.  

Planners can also review excess inventory alerts for one location and trigger a transfer to another, optimizing stock deployment.

Dynamic safety stock 

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing dynamically adjusts safety stock levels for slow movers based on demand variability, lead times, and service level targets to avoid stockouts or overstocking.  

3. Q: How does the RELEX solution calculate forecasts for products sold in different packages or units? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing supports forecasting and planning for any unit of measure and can convert between units automatically based on product master data. 

• Manufacturers can define default units for inventory, volume, weight, and space at the product or product-location level. 
• RELEX automatically converts units to sets (such as batches, packs, cases, or pallets) based on predefined parameters in the master data. 
• RELEX supports multiple picking units or batch sizes per product. Users can define the rules for selecting the most suitable picking unit per product or product-location. 
• Standard-to-standard unit conversions are available via configurable metrics, such as converting UK sizing to EU sizing. 
• Currencies are converted automatically based on user settings. 

This flexibility ensures that forecasts and order proposals are presented in the most operationally relevant unit for each team or planning context. 

4. Q: Can RELEX forecast sub-components of a finished product? How does it handle bill of materials or recipe-based forecasting? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing generates a forecast for finished products and associated sub-components through bill of materials (BOM) and recipe-based forecasting. 

Forecasting sellable products and sub-components 

RELEX creates independent sales forecasts for sellable products based on expected consumer demand. It derives a dependent forecast for sub-components from the sellable products they contribute to and provides full visibility into which sellable products drive each component’s demand. Plus, RELEX can create independent sales forecasts for any sub-components that are also sold to consumers directly. 

Teams can import and maintain BOM structures within the RELEX system, including recipes, bundles, gift packs, and multi-level assemblies. Lead times and yield amounts can be defined separately at each hierarchy level and factored into purchasing calculations. 

Performing reverse BOM calculations 

RELEX also supports reverse BOM scenarios in which a single ordered component yields multiple sellable products. A practical example is a butcher ordering a large cut of meat and selling it as multiple smaller portions. If component-level stock balance data is available, RELEX derives component sales from balance reductions and calculates forecasts and orders accordingly.

5. Q: Does RELEX provide phase-in and phase-out forecasts? How does it forecast demand throughout the product lifecycle? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides lifecycle management functionalities across the full product lifecycle. 

New product introductions and replacements 

RELEX automatically incorporates the sales history of replaced products into the forecast for replacements.  

For entirely new products with no sales history, RELEX identifies the best available reference product by comparing seasonality characteristics, weekday patterns, product group attributes, and any custom attributes in the master data. As the new product accrues sales history, the system continuously revises the forecast based on the latest available data. Manual overrides or external demand plan inputs can be incorporated at any time. 

Phase-out and ramp-down 

RELEX manages product ramp-downs by using introduction and termination dates to define the replenishment window and taper forecasts toward the end of the lifecycle. The system automatically calculates remaining demand and applies the chosen run-down profile, distributing the forecast proportionally across locations or based on historical trend data. This dynamic adjustment minimizes waste and write-offs while maintaining availability during the delisting period. 

6. Q: Can the RELEX system calculate forecasts at the customer or account level? 

A: Yes, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides granular, account-level forecasting that allows manufacturers to monitor and manage customer-specific demand plans simultaneously. The system uses POS data integration, data sharing capabilities, and specialized models to help manufacturers improve OTIF rates and strengthen key account relationships. 

Incorporating POS data 

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing incorporates retail POS (sell-out) data alongside sell-in data to give manufacturers a clearer, more accurate picture of consumer demand per account. It generates channel-specific forecasts at the SKU-day level, incorporating variables such as baseline demand, weekday profiles, seasonality, trends, events, and past promotions. This granularity prevents averaged demand data from distorted demand patterns and provides a reliable forecast for each account. 

Improving retail collaboration 

With RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing, manufacturers can automatically upload customer-provided order forecasts for key accounts and schedule forecast exports to customers, making joint planning and collaborative forecasting easier to manage at scale. 

Forecasting long-tail and slow-moving SKUs by account 

For products with sparse or irregular sales history at the account level, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing uses pooled models to combine demand signals from similar products, ensuring accurate forecasts even for niche or seasonal SKUs by customer.

7. Q: Can RELEX’s forecasting for manufacturers incorporate forecast data into its demand forecasting processes?

A: Yes, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing incorporates and displays weather information, such as temperature, rainfall, and wind conditions, so users can analyze the impact of weather on sales. RELEX can use relevant weather variables to automatically model demand deviations that cannot be explained by other factors, and then applies those weather variables in forecast calculations going forward.

RELEX has a built-in integration for a global weather data provider, but manufacturers can integrate alternative sources of weather data if they choose.

How does RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing incorporate AI control and solution transparency into the user experience? 

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing is built around a touchless planning approach. This approach automates heavy mathematical forecast calculations, so planners can focus on anomalous exceptions that are more likely to severely impact manufacturers’ supply chain performance.

1. Q: Explain how RELEX users can understand and validate the factors influencing the system’s forecast recommendations.

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides explainable forecasts and gives users visibility into forecast calculations using regressor coefficients. Regressor coefficients are numbers generated by the machine learning forecasting model that represent the weight and influence of each demand driver. For example, the numerical regressor coefficient for “days of sunshine” tells the planner whether sunny conditions increase or decrease demand for a product and by how much. 

Demand planners use these coefficients to: 

• Understand which factors are driving a forecast up or down and how drastically demand may fluctuate. 
• Compare how the same factor affects the same SKU differently across locations or markets. 
• Effectively review and validate automated decisions and increase trust in the system. 

This visibility differentiates RELEX from “black box” supply chain planning solutions that provide little insight into the factors impacting their calculations.  

2. Q: How does RELEX help demand planners prioritize and resolve forecast exceptions? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides configurable dashboards that highlight exceptions so demand planners can direct their attention to high-priority anomalies rather than reviewing every SKU manually. Planners can modify the forecast at any level, such as individual products, product groups, or locations. Scenario planning capabilities allow users to compare multiple plans simultaneously, and when a plan is finalized, the system automatically sends updates throughout the integrated platform.

3. Q: Does the RELEX system allow manufacturers to flexibly manage and adjust exception rules? Please describe the process.  

A: Yes, the RELEX Business Rules Engine (BRE) gives manufacturers full control over how exception rules are defined, triggered, and updated. The BRE is a graphical interface that allows manufacturers to automate workflows and adjust calculation logic, in-house and without coding. Users can create, modify, and remove rules directly within the UI. The system’s visualization setup makes it straightforward to audit and refine automation logic.

The BRE also allows companies to upgrade to the latest software version without disrupting existing workflows because the configuration layer is separate from the underlying software layer. This separation means manufacturers don’t have to choose between keeping business processes stable and keeping them updated. 

4. Q: Does the RELEX platform provide generative AI-based assistance to users? 

A: Yes. All RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing users (and all RELEX users in general) have access to Rebot, RELEX’s built-in generative AI assistant. 

Rebot functions as an on-demand consultant, drawing on a vast, machine-readable knowledgebase of supply chain expertise and RELEX solution documentation. 

Manufacturers can use Rebot to: 

• Accelerate onboarding for new planning team members. 
• Answer questions and resolve issues quickly without escalating to support. 
• Upskill users across the organization on RELEX capabilities and best practices. 
• Get immediate, contextual answers without interrupting workflow. 

Rebot planners can become confident, effective RELEX users faster, reducing reliance on IT or implementation teams for day-to-day questions.  

Customer testimonial 

RELEX customer Beijer Byggmateria, a leading Swedish retailer and part of the STARK Group, used Rebot to accelerate adoption and improve operational efficiency.  

According to Robin Olsson, the Supply Chain Developer and Global Business Processes Owner at Beijer Byggmaterial, “This acceleration has had a direct impact on our ability to reach strategic targets faster. Improving operational efficiency is one of our key objectives, and Rebot has been instrumental in achieving this. It helps us identify the right changes to our business configuration, which in turn supports better product availability. Rebot has also shortened our learning curve with RELEX. By enabling interactive, system-level discussions, it has made the platform easier to understand, driving stronger adoption across the business.” 

What data analysis and collaboration tools does RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provide?

RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides data analysis capabilities that help users act on, report, and share quality data insights with stakeholders on other teams and at other tiers of the manufacturer’s business.

1. Q: Does RELEX provide configurable dashboards and reporting capabilities for role- and team-specific needs? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing includes a comprehensive library of standard dashboards and reports designed to support demand planning and S&OP processes. Users can customize standard dashboards or create new dashboards to fit the specific needs of each customer and role. 

Dashboard capabilities include: 

• Interactive tables, charts, heatmaps, trend lines, and drill-down visualizations that allow users to analyze key metrics such as forecast accuracy, sales trends, inventory levels, and more. 
• Configurable KPI metrics tailored to different roles or individual users. 
• Executive-level summary views alongside granular operational dashboards. 
• Aggregation at any hierarchy level, with interactive drill-down to SKU-day granularity. 

The KPI management process supports both standard metrics and custom definitions, giving teams the flexibility to monitor the metrics that matter most to their planning function. 

In terms of exception management reviews, RELEX works with each customer during implementation to configure planning review dashboards tailored to the 

2. Q: What forecast accuracy metrics does RELEX measure?

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing allows users to track forecast accuracy across multiple time horizons and aggregation levels, including the following accuracy metrics: 

• Mean Absolute Error (MAE) 
• Mean Squared Error (MSE) 
• Weighted Absolute Percentage Error (WAPE) 
• Bias 

3. Q: How does the RELEX system support KPI management? Can users create, customize, and eliminate KPIs as required? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing provides a comprehensive and flexible KPI management framework. 

• The system includes hundreds of native KPI metrics out of the box. 
• Custom KPIs can be defined flexibly. 
• Metrics can be surfaced in dashboards, exception views, or reports, scoped to the relevant role or planning function. 

This flexibility allows manufacturers to align KPI measurement precisely with their operational and commercial planning priorities as business needs evolve. 

4. Q: Can demand planners using RELEX export forecast dashboards to Excel or other file formats for offline analysis?

A: Yes, RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing users can export forecast data in a range of file formats, including Excel, CSV, and JSON, for additional analysis, data sharing, and integration with external tools. 

Exports are configured using predefined views that specify exactly which data to include and in what format. These exports can be: 

• Triggered manually for ad-hoc analysis. 
• Scheduled automatically for recurring reporting needs. 
• Sent directly to external systems, such as Azure Blob Storage, for further processing or integration with other planning tools. 

Custom labels and formatting defined in the view are preserved in the export, ensuring the output is clear and immediately usable by downstream teams or stakeholders. 

5. Q: How does RELEX support consensus demand planning in manufacturing? 

A: RELEX Demand Planning & Sensing is built to support multi-function consensus planning, enabling demand planning, commercial, finance, and supply teams to collaborate on a shared forecast within a single platform. 

Key collaboration capabilities include: 

• Teams at any tier of the organization can review, adjust, and annotate forecasts simultaneously, with role-based permissions controlling who can view and edit which data. 
• Users can leave comments explaining forecast adjustments, creating a clear audit trail for consensus decisions.
• Exceptions can trigger sequential review workflows between teams, such as escalating a significant commercial adjustment to supply planning for review. 
• Scenario planning tools allow multiple versions of a plan to be compared before a consensus view is committed to the master plan. 

Because all teams operate from the same underlying dataset, consensus adjustments are immediately visible across connected planning functions, ensuring that the agreed-upon demand plan drives consistent supply planning, production scheduling, and purchasing decisions.