Responding to key market trends

By Vargo· April 18, 2022

Art Eldred, VP and Growth Officer, VARGO®

Q: What is your number one takeaway from Modex 2022?

Eldrid: It was definitely the amount of interest and turnout from folks as we begin to emerge from the pandemic. Modex was really a testament to how badly companies need automated solutions right now. The need is so great that people are getting out to trade shows to see the products and solutions and hear what’s going on in the marketplace. This year, there was much more interest in the robotics, automation and technology side of the show, compared to the traditional equipment side. There were also a lot more problems looking for solutions, so to speak, versus the other way around meaning attendees needed be more careful then ever in knowing their problem and having experience on how to solve. 

Q: What are the three key market trends from your perspective?

Eldrid:Labor is first because companies can’t find it or keep it right now. The only way to mitigate that is by automating. That leads right into the second trend, which is that companies are automating everything they can right now. And it’s not just automating for purpose anymore; it’s really automating anything that helps you mitigate labor issues.

Finally, there’s a significant “labor swap” occurring in the marketplace, with everyone from the order filler to the project manager to the controls engineer going across the street to work for more money. There’s a revolving pool of labor that understands the industry and what we’re doing, and you’re just seeing them change the logos behind their names.

Q: How is VARGO® responding to these market trends?

Eldrid:As a full turnkey systems integrator, we don’t manufacture anything. Our view on technology, automation and solution deployment is agnostic. We don’t come in with a prenotion on how we should be doing business or what solution set we use. For example, knowing that there’s a tremendous problem with labor and a need to automate, we’re investigating these new technologies and asking ourselves questions like: What technologies provide the most flexibility and scalability? Which ones are not being dependent upon supply chain problems just to provide equipment? How fast can I get those up and running? Do these new technologies create value in the entire operation or just a silo of the operation?

In response to some of these questions, we’ve added various robotic order matching and putwall-type technologies, some of which use artificial intelligence and others use iBOTS. We have those pilots up and running and they’re doing well. We’re also focusing on goods-to-person picking, which is where most of the labor is right now in the warehouse and is the greatest level of inefficiency. Overall, we’re not looking to solve a problem within a specific area; we want to integrate a solution into an entire workflow or operation.  Our COFE® WES has been a great facilitator of implementing new technologies in short time periods. Using VARGO®’s COFE® WES also ensures these new technologies are providing value to the full facility workflow.