Stuttgart, Germany – Editor Peter MacLeod spoke with Mike Morgan from OPEX at LogiMAT 2026 about the company’s latest innovations in automated storage, retrieval, and sortation, highlighting technologies designed to streamline order fulfilment and reduce manual handling.
This year, OPEX introduced Xtract, a high-speed sortation and order consolidation solution, and actively controlled temperature zones integrated into its SRS system. Xtract automates the sorting of items, consolidating orders and delivering them directly into cartons, bags, or onto conveyors for downstream processing, eliminating extra touch points.
Mike Morgan explained that these solutions are significant improvements on existing technology, allowing warehouses to increase efficiency and manage high-volume order processing with minimal manual intervention. The combination of OPEX’s sortation and picking systems, including the Perfect Pick solution, supports both batch and individual item fulfilment, optimising the organisation of orders and improving throughput.
Software integration is a key strength, with the system designed to fit flexibly into customer operations. Warehouse automation projects often succeed or fail at the software layer rather than the machinery layer. The ability to exchange simple messages with warehouse control, order management, or host systems reduces implementation risk and allows customers to scale automation in phases. This approach enables customers to either manage the system themselves or have OPEX provide additional support.
The technology is applicable across a wide range of sectors, including e-commerce, returns processing, and store replenishment.
The wider intralogistics market continues to focus heavily on reducing touches, compressing order cycle times, and improving labour productivity as fulfilment operations face rising SKU counts and increasingly complex customer expectations. For readers less familiar with the sector, each additional ‘touch’ means another moment where labour cost, delay, or human error can enter the process, which is why one-touch and zero-touch workflows are now major design goals in modern distribution centres. Solutions that combine goods-to-person picking, intelligent sortation, and seamless software orchestration are becoming central to warehouse strategies aimed at increasing throughput without proportionally increasing headcount or floor space. High-speed order consolidation and the ability to manage hundreds of open orders simultaneously increase operator efficiency and the output from picking systems.
Morgan emphasised the value of trade shows like LogiMAT for building trust and demonstrating capabilities. The live demonstration of machines shows customers the reliability and performance of OPEX systems, reinforcing confidence in both the technology and the team behind it.
