VARGO® Addresses Pharma Serialization

GREENCREST on October 22, 2025

DUBLIN, Ohio (October 22, 2025) — VARGO®, a leading provider of automated material handling systems integration, warehouse execution software, and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, continues to pioneer the industry with expert pull-based methodologies and advanced automation technologies.

Serialization for a Leading Pharmaceutical Distributor

VARGO® developed a label parsing algorithm for a pharmaceutical distributor to meet the requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). Under the DSCSA, distributors are required to capture and trace the serial number and other unique identification numbers for each item shipped from distribution facilities. VARGO® engineers created the algorithm to extract the National Drug Code, unique serial number, lot number, and expiration date from manufacturer 2D barcodes. This algorithm was integrated into various Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine (COFE®) processes where item scans occur.

The VARGO® team applied its inventory tracking expertise to help a pharmaceutical client comply with DSCSA supply chain standards. Now, the client can monitor key data from manufacturer labels throughout the supply chain. The FDA’s DSCSA requires identifying and tracing products to protect consumers from counterfeit or unsafe medications.

COFE® Express Announcement

COFE® is VARGO®’s Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine. It is the first and remains the industry’s most advanced and scalable WES (Warehouse Execution System) for small and large-scale, high-volume fulfillment centers. By sequencing and synchronizing workflows, it organizes and optimizes order fulfillment, ensuring peak efficiency across all resources. VARGO®’s COFE® Express is a scalable version of its flagship platform designed for small- to mid-size businesses with lower order volumes. COFE® Express uses distributed architecture and microservices, so it can be scaled up or down to handle different order volumes. COFE® Express uses on-premise or VARGO® cloud facilities with a message-driven architecture to manage and optimize warehouse workflows. This message-based design facilitates efficient “waveless” processing, which pulls orders in a continuous, efficient flow rather than in large, batch-like “waves.” From picking to shipping, messaging allows for real-time decision-making and ensures continuous flow and efficiency. It is available for brownfield applications, as well as greenfield applications, with pre-integrated hardware automation and necessary material handling equipment (MHE). Watch this video to learn more about COFE®.

Geek+ Partnership

VARGO® recently partnered with Geekplus, a leader in scalable automation solutions, to bring the innovative robotics solutions of Geekplus to VARGO® customers across multiple industries. Renowned for its highly flexible and reliable automation technology, Geekplus solutions are trusted by some of the world’s largest brands, including UPS, Walmart, and Adidas. Together with the VARGO® approach to waveless and continuous order processing, Geekplus goods-to-person and mobile sortation systems offer a unique order fulfillment solution for VARGO® customers. With multiple projects at various stages of planning, concepting, and designing, both industry leaders look forward to showcasing how their joint solutions will add flexibility and increased capacity across the health and beauty, food and beverage, sporting goods, and high-fashion retail industries.

Retailers Roundtable

VARGO® hosted the first annual Retailers Roundtable in Columbus, Ohio on September 16 and 17. The VARGO® team created the invite-only event for retailers and third-party logistics providers to spark high-level insights and foster ongoing empowerment of the fulfillment industry. Keynote speakers and panelists included Tom Andersson, Co-Founder of STIQ, Ltd and Christian Dow, EVP of MHI. Attendees toured a Gap Inc. facility and attended an industry insights presentation by Kevin Kuntz, SVP of Global Logistics, Gap Inc. VARGO® plans to host the event annually.

“In today’s rapidly evolving fulfillment landscape, no single solution can solve every challenge broadly for everyone,” said Bart Cera, President and CEO of VARGO®. “Real progress happens when industry leaders connect, collaborate, and share their strengths and Systems Integrators like VARGO® listen and shape conversations using their expertise to unlock smarter solutions, faster innovation, and a stronger supply chain for everyone.”

About VARGO®

VARGO® is a proven integrator to enable what’s possible by empowering automation and people. VARGO® combines the newest and smartest automation technologies with the intelligent design of COFE® (Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine), the first intelligent WES (Warehouse Execution System) to orchestrate game-changing fulfillment solutions across all work resources: people, processes, and automation technologies. The VARGO® team of mechanical and software engineers has more than five decades of experience and has helped manufacturers, distributors, leading retailers, e-commerce providers, and 3PLs improve their fulfillment and material handling systems, increase processing capacities, and reduce order cycle times.

Learn more about VARGO® at vargosolutions.com.

Orchestrating Fulfillment Excellence: How VARGO®’s Advanced Fulfillment Solutions Meet Industry-Specific Needs

GREENCREST on October 15, 2025

In today’s rapid world of supply and demand, distribution centers must find effective ways to keep operations running quickly and smoothly. However, every industry has its own set of unique demands and challenges, and therefore require different technology, strategies and solutions to help achieve faster, smarter and more efficient operations.

See how VARGO® solutions have empowered fulfillment in a range of industries:

Apparel and Accessories

When Gap’s fulfillment network was straining under pressure, with picking productivity under 100 units per hour, cycle times over 55 hours and nearly 10% of orders delayed or in error, VARGO® implemented multiple advanced technologies to solve the problem.

COFE® – Our proven waveless, continuous fulfillment system synchronized people, processes and automation in real time to optimize throughput and labor efficiency.

OPEX® Sure SortTM, TGW carton ASRS, Eurosort item sortation and Interroll Cross Belt- This combination of technologies resulted in a system designed for scalability, responsiveness, reduced maintenance needs and operational flexibility.

Result:

  • Tripled peak-day network capacity from <2M to 6M+ units
  • Increased picking productivity to 200+ units per hour
  • Cut average cycle time to under 12 hours
  • Reduced problem orders to <0.1%

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. In addition to COFE®, VARGO® integrated the following solutions:

  • Eliminated bottlenecks – Removed the mechanical buffer system and created a reserve replenishment method for the active pick model.
  • Optimized sortation – Retrofitted the unit sorter into a sort-to-putwall design.
  • Established a continuous flow – Partnered with Matthews Automation and BEUMER Group to rework controls and sortation equipment.

Result:

  • 200% increase in throughput capacity
  • 75% faster order completion times
  • 66% reduction in exception orders

Pharmaceuticals Distribution

Anda Pharmaceuticals had to capture and trace the serial number and other unique identification numbers of each item shipped from its Olive Branch, Mississippi and Weston, Florida facilities. VARGO® helped them reach this goal by doing the following:

  • Built a label parsing algorithm to extract the National Drug Code, unique serial number, lot number and expiration date from the manufacturer’s 2D barcode.

Result:

  • Anda can now capture, track and communicate critical information parsed from manufacturer labels as Anda products travel in the supply chain.
  • Anda is now meeting the DSCSA’s pharmaceutical supply chain requirements.

Beverage Distribution

As the pandemic reshaped many aspects of daily life, businesses in the food and beverage sector experienced an influx in online delivery orders. WineDirect, the wine industry’s leading direct-to-consumer fulfillment network, reached out to VARGO® during this time for solutions that would allow them to meet increased wine home delivery demand, and expand their fulfillment center to increase efficiencies.

  • Increase capacity – VARGO®added nine diverts and four take away lines to the existing packing sorter to help meet increased demand. A third taper was also added to the fulfillment solution.
  • Created a scalable, flexible system – This system allows WineDirect to adapt to both expected and unexpected demand changes.
  • COFE® integration – COFE® works in real time to organize, sequence and synchronize all warehouse resources, enabling continuous flow picking that minimizes order cycle times, maximizes efficiency and eliminates waves and buffers.

Result: 

  • Shorter order cycle times
  • Doubled capacity

Parts Distribution

When a national tire retailer decided to build a new distribution center that could handle a wider selection of products, allow for crossdocking at two of its distribution center operations in Seattle and Denver and increase fulfillment capabilities, VARGO® transformed fulfillment by doing the following:

  • Developed a custom-designed solution – This solution was modeled after VARGO®’s successful implementation at the retailer’s Chicago facility.
  • Incorporated advanced technology – This technology reduces the number of product touches before reaching the final destination, improving efficiency and accuracy.

Result:

  • 2,000 tires per hour to 70 tire stores (Denver distribution center)
  • 1,250 tires per hour to 40 tire stores (Seattle distribution center)
  • 4,500 tires per hour to 100 tire stores
  • 25% more capacity for expansion
  • VARGO® design improved associate productivity by 20%

General Merchandise

A large-scale ecommerce general merchandiser reached out to VARGO® when they needed to locate, design and build a new ecommerce fulfillment center in 9 months that could handle 8M units and fulfill 2-hour order cycle times. VARGO® implemented the following:

  • IT integration – IT integration of WMOS ’13, Reddwerks PTL, 5 sortersall active multi-SKU per slot inventory, RF.
  • Product integration – Procured, built and integrated products from Dematic, TGW, Beumer, Speedrack cantilever active module, Reddwerks and Ryson.

Result:

  • Year 1 PEAK season goals met
  • 2-hour service levels
  • Full waveless processing

Beauty

The largest beauty retailer in the United States partnered with VARGO®  to reimagine its fulfillment network in order to expand capacity, improve productivity and allow the retailer to get closer to their customers.

  • Upgraded existing fulfillment centers – Integrated automation to boost productivity.
  • Added new fulfillment centers – To increase capacity and bring inventory closer to customers.
  • Implemented COFE® WES – To coordinate workflow across automation.
  • Integrated new technologies – Including Hytrol sorters, OPEX® Perfect Pick® ASRS, SureSort systems, and Dematic Multishuttle® to improve picking and reduce manual touches.
  • Deployed Locus AMRs – For retail and e-commerce order picking.

Result:

  • Capacity expanded to 750,000 units/day in existing facility
  • Capacity expanded to 250,000 units/day in new facility

VARGO® Powers Peak Performance Across Industries

Regardless of industry or channel, VARGO® enables what’s possible and allows customers to increase throughput, improve accuracy, reduce cycle times, scale efficiently and improve operations using innovative technology and proven strategy.

Regardless of industry, we’re here to help! Contact us and let’s work together to turn your fulfillment troubles into triumphs!

VARGO® Hosts First Annual Retailers Roundtable

GREENCREST on September 19, 2025

First-of-Kind Event Sparked High-Level Insights About Continuous Flow

DUBLIN, Ohio (September 19, 2025) — VARGO®, a leading provider of automated material handling systems integration, warehouse execution software, and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, hosted a Retailers Roundtable in Columbus on September 16 and 17. The VARGO® team created this invite-only event for retailers and third party logistics providers to spark high-level insights and foster ongoing empowerment of the fulfillment industry.

Keynote speakers and panelists of the VARGO® Retailers Roundtable included Tom Andersson, Co-Founder of STIQ, Ltd and Christian Dow, EVP of MHI. Andersson presented about how warehouses are evolving into factories of the future and the ever-growing importance of warehouse automation and software among retailers.

Christian Dow, EVP Industry Leadership & Workforce Development at MHI, gave a presentation entitled Pick, Pack & Ship: Optimizing Fulfillment End-to-End which explored why pick-pack-ship means more now than ever, aligning picks with downstream workflows and the critical nature of packaging. He also spoke in detail about the SLAM (Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest) philosophy.

Retailers Roundtable attendees toured a Gap Inc. facility and attended an industry insights presentation by Kevin Kuntz, SVP of Global Logistics, Gap Inc.

Sportscaster and former college football coach Urban Meyer made a cameo appearance at the event in support of the VARGO® mission to use cutting edge technology to help businesses grow smarter, faster, and more efficient.

VARGO® plans to continue hosting the Retailers Roundtable event annually.

“The inspiration behind this event stems from our commitment to creating meaningful connections and sparking new ideas,” said Bart Cera, President and CEO of VARGO®. “Bringing together leaders, innovators, and partners creates an experience that celebrates progress and fosters fresh collaboration and bold thinking. When people meet in the right environment, great things happen—not only for our businesses, but for the entire industry and communities we serve. We’re grateful to all Retailers Roundtable participants for their engaging conversations and to Kevin Kuntz from Gap Inc. for sharing his VARGO® journey.”

VARGO® and Geek+ Partner to Create Game-Changing e-Commerce Automation Solutions

GREENCREST on September 18, 2025

Industry Leaders Join Forces to Increase Flexibility and Efficiency

DUBLIN, Ohio (September 2, 2025) — VARGO®, a leading provider of automated material handling systems integration, warehouse execution software, and equipment solutions for major fulfillment and distribution centers, announced their partnership with Geekplus, a leader in scalable automation solutions. This partnership between two trusted industry leaders brings the innovative robotics solutions of Geekplus to VARGO® customers across multiple industries, facilitated by VARGO®’s highly customized approach and industry leading COFE® Warehouse Execution System (WES).

Well known for its highly flexible and reliable automation technology, Geekplus solutions are trusted by some the world’s largest brands, including UPS, Walmart and Adidas. Together with the VARGO® approach to waveless and continuous order processing, Geekplus goods-to-person and mobile sortation systems offer a unique order fulfillment solution to VARGO® customers. With multiple projects at various stages of planning and deployment, the pair of industry leaders look forward to showcasing how their joint solutions will add flexibility and increased capacity across numerous industries including health and beauty, food and beverage, sporting goods and high-fashion retail.

“Our approach to automation integration requires a great deal of collaboration with our vendor partners to orchestrate workflows across the entire system,” said Robert Nilsson, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at VARGO®. “We know that expectations for maximum efficiency continue to evolve for our e-Commerce customers and we do not shy away from the challenge. Geekplus shares our focus on scalable solutions that optimize labor. By coordinating work activities and implementing the right solutions, our COFE® WES assigns work to the best-fit automation, improving order accuracy and speed and ultimately, customers satisfaction.”

“What sets VARGO apart is their ability to make software changes quickly and efficiently, without having to go back to a third party and wait months for updates.” said Gene Sanders, Head of Channel Management, Geekplus America. “Their world-class WES solution paired with our flexible automation gives current and future customers the reliability and responsiveness our customers need. This partnership is a game-changer for delivering robust, agile automation across industries.”

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.