Responding to the precedents set by e-commerce powerhouses such as Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc., retailers are working hard to meet consumers’ expectations to deliver products quickly and efficiently. Without the right systems in place, it’s a constant struggle.

“A lot of companies are handcuffed by warehouse management systems built to sustain an outdated retail order profile,” says Rebecca Call, product delivery specialist at Vargo, which develops warehouse execution software for e-commerce and omnichannel fulfillment centers. “As e-commerce has changed, retailers have been forced to become more efficient with the use of capital, facilities and labor—and the cost of transformation hinders advancements. Many retailers are now trying to Band-Aid a system that is not working for today’s needs.”

Rebecca Call, product delivery specialist, Vargo

However, forward-thinking retailers are partnering with software providers like Vargo to focus on process and introduce technologies—such as automation and robotics—that can relieve this burden and future-proof their systems. “Implementing additional technologies at the WES layer provides faster, more flexible solutions to improve retail fulfillment,” Call says.

“Fulfillment companies are finding labor fluctuations difficult to manage,” Call says, adding that during peak seasons, a fulfillment center may need 10 laborers for every one laborer they use during the regular season. “So the idea of supplementing labor with automation is becoming a priority.”

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. is one of those forward-thinking companies, Call says, noting the multichannel apparel retailer uses Vargo’s warehouse execution system—called COFE (Continuous Order Fulfillment Engine)—to manage its fulfillment. American Eagle is implementing an automated storage retrieval system (AS/RS) within the COFE WES to further efficiencies.

“With an AS/RS, you’re taking your replenishment retrieval processes and automating them entirely,” Call says. “COFE executes based on real-time, right-now decisions. Rather than manually pulling a case of inventory that you might need in future, COFE directs the AS/RS to pull that inventory when it is needed.” Because the AS/RS is handling what humans normally would—all putaway and replenishment work—the system allows companies to have fewer human touch points in the fulfillment center, leading to a faster, more efficient flow of orders.

Gap Inc., which also uses COFE, is going a step further by integrating Kindred robotics technology into its warehouses. In order to make the robot work within the COFE WES software, Vargo engineers built a machine interface and adapted the software to filter work to the robots and to human pickers. The Kindred system, which involves an articulated robotic arm housed inside a circular putwall, uses a mix of automated technology and human controls. Kindred, an intelligent robotics provider, designed the orb to automatically sort units into orders, normally a human task. Humans oversee the operation, but instead of one worker sorting at one putwall, the worker can supervise the activity of up to five orb stations.

Call says the orbs, like human laborers, are another resource that COFE manages in the warehouse to create efficiencies in fulfillment. “COFE will determine how the orb will complement laborers during peak and off-peak cycles—providing even greater efficiency to warehouse processes,” she says. COFE routes all orders to either the orb stations or human-driven putwalls based on capacity and flow rules to ensure that all resources, human and robotic, are used to capacity.

With these advanced technologies and warehouse executive systems such as COFE available to easily integrate and manage them, Call says, retailers should feel optimistic about competing against retail giants such as Amazon. “There are options out there to overcome existing fulfillment challenges, rise above the competition and future-proof their fulfillment function,” she says.