From Bolts to Black Friday: Why Warehouse Agility Now Starts with the Basics

In an industry captivated by AI forecasting and autonomous delivery, it's easy to forget that warehouse agility often begins with forklifts, conveyors, and the humans who maintain them. But for many retailers—especially those operating at the sharp edge of fast fashion or seasonal retail—operational resilience is still defined by uptime, layout efficiency, and whether your fulfillment system bends—or breaks—under pressure.

According to warehouse automation specialist Ferag, agility isn’t just about speed. It’s about handling volatility—without burning capital or workforce flexibility.

“In fashion especially, we see massive surges during promotions and seasonal events,” said Chris More, head of sales for Ferag in the UK and Nordics, in a written response to The Supply Chainer. “And with labor no longer being a reliable lever, automation needs to step in—strategically, not all at once.”

Ferag positions its solutions as part of a low-Capex automation strategy, designed to deliver modular flexibility without requiring full-system overhauls. For smaller and mid-sized retailers, that means targeted investments in areas like goods-to-person AMRs, pick-to-light guidance, and overhead pouch sorters such as Ferag’s own Skyfall system.

The premise: If you can’t predict every surge, you’d better be able to absorb one.

Unified Fulfillment, Modular Systems

Ferag’s Skyfall pouch sorters are especially suited to apparel and accessories, where SKUs shift quickly and returns can eat into margin. The system uses overhead space to convey, buffer, and sort both hanging and flat items, routing inventory between ecommerce and store channels at up to 25,000 units per hour.

“Many retailers are consolidating store and ecommerce stock into unified, omni-channel fulfillment hubs,” said More. “Once you have the throughput, systems like Skyfall allow that kind of dynamic rerouting in real time.”

That agility is becoming non-negotiable—not just to boost sales, but to minimize markdowns and wasted stock. If unsold items can’t be returned or reallocated efficiently, they turn into liabilities long before the next trend cycle.

Chris More, head of sales for Ferag in the UK and Nordics

Inventory Logic at the Edge: TOPTEN and Buffers.ai

For fast-fashion accessories retailer TOPTEN, speed and precision aren’t aspirations—they’re table stakes. The Israeli chain operates 65 stores and introduces new products at least twice a week, creating a SKU lifecycle measured in days, not weeks.

“We update our product range every day,” said Shay Haham, CEO of TOPTEN, in an interview with The Supply Chainer. “That freshness is essential to our business, but the complexity it adds to our supply chain is massive.”

Traditional ERP systems couldn’t support the store-level granularity and daily SKU churn needed to optimize sales without ballooning inventory. Instead, TOPTEN adopted Buffers.ai, a specialized AI platform that models store behavior, dynamically sets buffer stock levels, and even prioritizes where limited inventory should go.

“If a popular handbag is running low, the system ensures it’s sent to the stores that sell it best,” explained Yogev Madmon, logistics director at TOPTEN. “That wasn’t possible with our old ERP.”

Buffers.ai applies a unique method: it looks back to identify each store’s peak 3-day sales window for a given SKU and sets minimum inventory thresholds accordingly—far more accurate than one-size-fits-all safety stock rules. It also accounts for visual merchandising impact, ensuring that high-visibility units like piercing displays are always stocked to their aesthetic minimum.

“We built custom rules into the system,” Madmon added. “Once we define what needs to happen visually or operationally, Buffers.ai automates the logic.”

Meanwhile, Don’t Forget the Forklift

All the AI and automation in the world won’t save a warehouse if its core equipment fails. That’s where Rushlift, a UK-based materials handling specialist, returns the conversation to the operational foundation: forklifts, servicing, and predictive maintenance.

“You can’t afford to lose a day to a non-compliant forklift, or find out mid-shift that your mast chain has failed,” said Steve Briscall, National Training Manager at Rushlift.

Rushlift’s five-point uptime plan emphasizes regular inspections, compliance with PUWER and LOLER, and a digitized fleet management system that enables real-time diagnostics and service recordkeeping. For warehouses competing on fulfillment velocity, that kind of granular visibility into vehicle health is no longer optional.

Steve Briscall, National Training Manager at Rushlift

Precision Is the New Scale

Together, these strategies reveal a new logistics doctrine: flexibility doesn’t just come from scale—it comes from insight and control at every level.

From Buffers.ai’s daily SKU logic, to Ferag’s sortation flexibility, to Rushlift’s fleet discipline, the modern warehouse is evolving into a multi-layered performance engine, where the smartest companies are not necessarily the biggest—but the most responsive.

And in 2025, response time isn’t measured in quarters—it’s measured in hours.