Simplifying Highly Complex Fulfillment Operations

GREENCREST on July 26, 2025

Today’s e-commerce and omnichannel landscapes face challenges such as faster delivery times, labor shortages, high demand, tariff impacts, and economic uncertainty.

At VARGO®, we believe complexity doesn’t mean confusion. With the intelligent orchestration of COFE®, we add flexibility to fulfillment operations, managing the entire process for fewer silos, increased building throughput, faster order cycles, and more agile execution.

Optimizing Operations Efficiently

Customers are rapidly implementing advanced technologies such as goods-to-person (GTP) systems, robotics and other automated solutions into their fulfillment operations in an effort to satisfy customers while improving efficiency. Without intelligent orchestration, automation leads to bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities to fully capitalize on investments. COFE® excels at managing all activities within the four walls of a fulfillment center, from picking and packing to automation and labor. It integrates systems, people, and processes for a streamlined, real-time optimized operation.

Simplification is Essential to Success

Simplification in fulfillment is no longer a luxury — it’s a competitive necessity. VARGO® delivers the tools, strategies and expertise to orchestrate your fulfillment operations and take your fulfillment to the next level. Is it time to streamline your operations while boosting throughput, lowering processing costs per unit, achieving faster order completion times and spending less on CapEx equipment? Then it’s time to take the next step with VARGO® .

Let’s simplify your fulfillment.

Contact VARGO® today and enable what’s possible.

VARGO® and OPEX® Take Gap Inc. to Highest Peak in Company History

GREENCREST on July 1, 2025

DUBLIN, Ohio (July 1, 2025) — VARGO® a leading automation systems integrator and provider of warehouse execution software for distribution centers, is pleased to announce the successful completion of a collaborative project with its technology partner OPEX® for Gap Inc. Gap, a longstanding client of VARGO®, leveraged COFE® and VARGO®‘s successful experience supplying and integrating intelligent automation. With the implementation of one Sure Sort®, VARGO® was able to boost picking productivity by over 10% and automate the work of five manual put-to-order work stations.

In 2025, VARGO® integrated OPEX® Sure Sort® in one of Gap Inc.’s Gallatin, Tennessee distribution centers. VARGO®‘s continuous flow WES optimizes efficiency by maintaining a steady stream of products to the OPEX® Sure Sort® to maximize the return on automation investments. Not only does it increase efficiency of the operation, but it is also one of the top performing machines in the OPEX® Sure Sort® network of more than 900 systems.

“E-commerce growth brings challenges that must be addressed proactively,” said Robert Nilsson, Chief Commercial Officer at VARGO®. “Retailers struggle to meet consumer expectations due to package delivery issues, automation limitations, space constraints and labor concerns. Partnering with OPEX® helps us introduce technologies to manage current and future e-commerce volumes while improving productivity and optimizing labor.”

By incorporating OPEX® Sure Sort® technology into COFE® WES, VARGO® has significantly enhanced its capabilities and feeds automated packaging processes downstream. Gap continues to achieve outstanding building throughput and order fulfillment speed due to VARGO®‘s integrated solutions powered by COFE®.

“Partnering with experienced integrators like VARGO® enables us to deliver scalable, high-impact automation solutions,” said Alex Stevens, President, Warehouse Automation at OPEX®. “By combining our Sure Sort® technology with VARGO®’s WES expertise, we help clients like Gap Inc. boost efficiency and meet the demands of modern retail.”

From Capacity Limits to 200% Throughput Gains — See How VARGO ® Helped Torrid Orchestrate Fulfillment Excellence

GREENCREST on June 13, 2025

The ecommerce boom has led to a new wave of consumers that expect orders to be processed and shipped faster than ever before. For retailers, that means ensuring their facilities have the capacity to accommodate a high volume of orders efficiently and accurately. When Torrid, one of the largest direct-to-consumer apparel brands in North America for women sizes 10 to 30, realized its systems had reached capacity, were underperforming and unable to achieve the desired throughput needs, the team at Torrid reached out to the experts at VARGO® for a solution that would help increase the capacity of its current automation technology resources and make better use of its labor.

Solution

VARGO® aimed to maximize the value of Torrid’s existing automation investments by increasing peak daily throughput, providing significant picking efficiency gains and reducing order cycle times. VARGO® worked closely with Torrid’s senior leadership on implementing its adaptable, highly configurable WES, COFE®, to re-control the existing mechanical elements within its distribution facility while more importantly, establishing a sustainable, waveless flow of picked products through order completion. These changes included removing the existing mechanical buffer system, creating a reserve replenishment methodology to the active pick model to replace the existing model and retrofitting the unit sorter system to a sort-to-putwall design. VARGO® also partnered with Matthews Automation and BEUMER Group on the rework of the existing controls and sortation equipment on portions of the system to fit the new waveless design.

Results

By prioritizing the process needs and desired outcomes before pursuing new automation or mechanical upgrades, VARGO® was able to significantly enhance building throughput and operational efficiency with limited additional CapEx spend. The solution implemented by VARGO® exceeded projected returns and continues to outperform industry benchmarks in picking efficiency and order cycle times. Torrid has since doubled its outbound volume, and the team reports that the system is significantly easier to operate compared to previous solutions. Key performance changes include 200% increase in capacity/throughput, 75% faster order completion times and 66% reduction in exception orders.

“In brownfield opportunities like Torrid, COFE®, our Warehouse Execution System (WES) acts as a unifying intelligence layer that synchronizes labor, automation, and inventory in real time—unlocking hidden capacity, improving flow, and dramatically increasing throughput without costly infrastructure changes or significant disruptions to the business in many instances.”

Bart Cera, CEO of VARGO®

Ready to orchestrate automation excellence at your facility and elminate unnecessary CapEx spend? Then contact us and learn how COFE® empowers every aspect of fulfillment.