Interviews

There are definitely more companies that are adopting automation in assembly however, there is still a huge manual assembly sector.  There are many companies reshoring due to instability in the supply chain and rising costs from other countries, especially in sectors where it's still competitive or where specialised skills are needed. There is also, of course, a trend towards a combination of a mix of manual and automated techniques, especially in higher value manufacturing/assembly.

The bott avero system is designed to be configured as the customer needs – from basic packing benches to workstations with worker guidance and cobot integration, the system is designed to integrate a wide choice of technology and automation tools.

Everyone wants goods quicker, but they also want the best quality and the lowest price.  With rising costs and a shortage of labour, any company assembling and shipping products is under immense pressure.  They need to be accurate and efficient, and to do this, they need to have a reliable, loyal and healthy workforce.

Technology moves so fast with so many different warehouse processes being integrated, innovative companies want to find the best solutions to increase production capacity without losing cost or quality.  IMHX shows them what is out there to help them achieve their growth goals.

Well, AI is the big one!  IoT is also huge with everyone gathering Big data to help with many tasks including inventory management, Augmented reality is also already here and increasing accuracy and efficiency in leading warehouses.

All systems are configurable but the bott system is designed for quick change making it perfect where smaller batches or changes in product batches is required.   This flexibility means that the operator is always perfectly positioned for ergonomics, efficiency and within reach of the required technology to complete their role.  On top of that the product is high quality, really robust, and our team are fully trained to show you the best solutions for your own process.

One of the factors which sets Spaciotempo apart from other suppliers in the temporary building space is their longevity.  In 2023 we celebrated our 50th birthday in the sector – we’ve seen a lot of players come and go in the market during this time – we’ve installed a lot of buildings of all shapes and sizes and gained an awful lot of experience.  The technical skill and experience of the team means that there aren’t many requests or projects which surprise us, and we can generally engineer a bespoke solution which fits the bill. This has a lot to do with our belief in listening to the customer, always carrying out a site visit to understand what the client is trying to achieve, and the topography of the site.  Our cradle to grave approach means that our customers know they can rely on us not just during design and installation but post-handover, and for years to come.


I think Spaciotempo’s customers know that our service comes with a level of professionalism, quality and assurance which certainly isn’t always the case in this market where quality of product, and accountability vary so much.  And when you’re making a significant investment in a temporary building, these are the things that matter.

The industrial market has always been Spaciotempo’s bread and butter – providing storage and warehousing to the manufacturing, logistics, retail and construction industries, and demand in these sectors continues to be high. For many businesses, a relatively standard product does the job very well which also gives them the ultimate flexibility of being able to rent or buy outright. Some industries, such as automotive manufacturing, rail and rolling freight, production plants etc necessitate a seriously bespoke offering, custom designed to fulfil a specific purpose.

Our reputation for bespoke design and fit out, rather than just “industrial boxes” means we are also regularly asked for solutions for other sectors – including sports halls, swimming pool housing, gyms, assembly and exam halls, film studios, and also showroom space for customer facing retail businesses where finish and fit out are important.  And our product development and new product lines are helping us stay at the forefront of this demand.  We also regularly work with architects and specifiers who find that our design led and consultative approach works well as part of their project design.

As a rental business, where the majority of a building’s components are reused on future projects, our temporary buildings are already pretty sustainable.  We also offer a range of insulation options for both walls and roof which reduce heat loss and make the buildings more fuel efficient. As a business, we are actively reducing our carbon emissions.

2023 was our benchmark for our carbon footprint and 2024 sees the development of our roadmap to net zero, with initiatives both within our depot, in our transportation and in the delivery of our projects.  We will also shortly be able to offer some new product developments which will help clients reduce the carbon emissions of their temporary building.  So watch this space!

We will always try and offer our customers the best value solution we can based on their needs.  You won’t get a “finger in the air” one size fits all quote over the phone from Spaciotempo.  We base our costings on firstly taking a good brief from the client over the phone, and then following up with a site visit as soon as possible afterwards. This means we can quote accurately with everything included – no hidden extras or last minute price increases.

As we manufacture in house, we control our own supply chain, which also benefits our customers as we can cut excess costs others can’t and deliver solutions in shorter timescales. This doesn’t mean that every project requires all the bells and whistles.  Many clients need a simple solution and we can provide this. We’ll walk our client through how they are going to use the building and put together a spec collaboratively.  We can also guarantee that our proposal is based on a robust building of proven quality which is calculated to withstand any of the weather conditions at the location where it’s installed – with an equally robust service package to go alongside it.  Finally our range of sale, hire and finance options are costed to make them as affordable as possible, whatever your business structure.

Our vision is simple – to continue to lead the UK’s temporary building market and continue to provide our clients with the highest level of product and service that they can hope for, as we’ve done over the last 50 years. We are about honesty and transparency and letting our customers see what they are getting when they choose to work with Spaciotempo.

Our reputation is founded on quality buildings across the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland and our prospective clients are never far away from an existing Spaciotempo client which they can visit, and hear “from the horse’s mouth” what it’s like to work with us.  They can see, and feel the quality of our product.  In terms of development, we are continuously working on new functionality and technical capability, to help us deliver what our customers are asking for – whether this is wider spans, or new eco options. 

We have always found IMHX to be one of the highlights of our exhibition calendar, with plenty going on over the course of the exhibition to keep visitors engaged, and to keep them coming back year on year.  It’s a very social show, and is a great opportunity for us to catch up with customers old and new and talk face to face – quite a novelty these days!

We always have some good conversations with businesses who are new to Spaciotempo,  and every show results in some new orders in the book, which after all, is what its all about.   As the show is always popular with some of our competitors as well, it is  a good opportunity for customers to be able to visit several temporary building suppliers “side by side” and make an honest assessment of what they have to offer as a temporary building partner.  And for us, it's always useful to walk the floor and see what’s happening in the wide world of logistics and materials handling.

Our employees are at the core of everything we do, they are our foundations. Investing in the future of our workforce and providing professional development opportunities helps create an environment where learning and growth is part of our culture.

Just as important, is understanding our customers’ needs. This is a key driving factor for us to ensure we are matching and developing our products and services to meet the requirements of our customers. In doing so, we have adapted our offer to include bespoke personalised handling solutions that are tailored to the individual requirement of our customers and their business. We have also heavily invested in our production and workshop capabilities, purchasing top of the range manufacturing technology which allows us to create products for customers with specific material handling requirements.  

Our multi-strand approach has also been key to our growth. We provide our customers with full support services at every stage of equipment selection and use, including applications support, specialist design solutions, parts, workshop repair and refurbishment facilities. We offer the largest service operation of any attachment company, short term rentals and the provision of fully inclusive maintenance and service contracts.

Dexory not only uses machine learning and computer vision to understand what the robot scans but also for autonomy to identify and avoid obstacles (static and, most importantly, dynamic).  However, AI is key to analysing and providing forecasting and simulation capabilities.  The data can suggest improvements, new warehouse layouts, new ways of filling the space or storing goods based on seasonality, staffing requirements or the number of customers on a site.

We are actively listening to our customers and will be evolving our product offering to ensure we meet the most critical needs of the market. At the moment, there is a lot of demand for pick phase and block stack analysis which we are developing. In addition to this we are looking at bringing further AI-powered features that will allow for better optimisation of the warehouse and enable customers to tap into even more rich data to help them drive their businesses forward.

There are different ways that Dexory’s technology will help warehouse operatives with their sustainability goals. Perhaps the most direct impact can be felt from the reduction of electricity consumption needed for lighting and heating as most of our customers scan their warehouses out of hours. We have designed our robot so that it can operate in the dark and without the heat being on.

Another aspect in supporting our customers to achieve their sustainability goals comes from the data. We typically capture around 500gb of data per hour in the warehouse. This data can then be used to optimise the warehouse layout, reducing the distance that forklifts need to move, deciding on the best possible storing conditions and so on.

When you add all of these together, the technology not only brings real-time insights, but also helps drive sustainability targets for our customers.

There are many different concepts that need to be included in a digital twin environment. These consist of 3D models that replicate the real world into a dynamic and insightful 3D dashboard that provides real-time data analysis. When we set on this journey, we carried out extensive industry interviews on what were the most important issues the key players were facing and started to develop a model that would encapsulate all of this into an intuitive platform.

However, when creating the digital twin, we realised that there was a lot of data that was being generated in the warehouse and we wanted to go beyond what the initial customer requirements were to truly revolutionise the way warehouses operate. What we needed to understand was how to collect accurate 3D data using autonomous robots in environments over 1million sq ft on a daily basis. This required an understanding of engineering work to ensure that the robots were able to understand things like spatial dimensions, precision and to provide visual accuracy, all without impacting the daily operations at all.

Dexory has participated at IMHX for the last few years and we continue to return as the event provides an opportunity to showcase our innovative solution and engage with potential and existing customers.  Being able to demonstrate the unique features and benefits of our solution, effectively differentiating Dexory from other technologies, is invaluable, as well as the ability to network with industry leaders and professionals.

The event provides the platform for Dexory’s growth, with the ability to foster collaborations and drive business expansion opportunities.

Global supply chains have faced a challenging period that was onset by the global pandemic in 2020. Due to lockdown measures imposed by governments across the world, supply chains ground to a halt and to a greater extent are still recovering from these shut downs. Recent geopolitical issues with ongoing conflicts both in Ukraine, the Middle-East, and in the Red Sea are further slowing down global supply chains. These are complex issues that have a wide-spreading impact across industries and borders, calling for immediate action to enhance supply chain resilience.

The visibility gap is a major source of friction in building the industry’s much needed resilience for the future. This manifests itself in various ways at the warehouse level but most evidently in the industry’s lack of access to real-time information on what happens at every stage in a good’s journey. Warehouses are often called the ‘black hole’ of global supply chains so Dexory sheds light into their operations with full, real-time visibility. We do so with a digital twin platform where our customers can interact with actionable insights fed through a continuous stream of real-time data.

Dexory’s first step in transforming warehouse operations is automating data collection using fully-autonomous robots. Though more than 6,500 hours are dedicated annually to labour-intensive stock checks, there is a stark contrast between perceived and actual accuracy. Many businesses in the industry rely on 99% inventory accuracy only to find out after just a few warehouse scans that the figure is often between 89% and 95%. 

We ultimately help businesses by decreasing or eliminating inventory distortion with real-time actionable insights on space utilisation, putaway and picking efficiency. Today our customers can close the visibility gap using our solution but tomorrow this will empower them to optimise, predict and grow. We aim to leverage our valuable proprietary data sets to enable unique predictive and prescriptive features using AI-driven insights to help collectively build a resilient, fully-autonomous Supply Network.

These advancements are helping make material handling safer and more efficient. Attachments are still necessary to handle product together with Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV’s). We are already seeing attachments using sensors and advanced technology to make intelligent decisions regarding load clamping pressure. The KAUP Smart Load Control system is a great example of these attachment advancements. Another fantastic example is the B&B manufactured automated static systems for layer handling (LayerMaster).

The advancements in technology will allow manufacturers to customise attachments even further to ensure an accurate match for the application required. Telematic intelligence to guide decisions is key to the future of the industry and offers the potential to build a more visible and quantifiable understanding of operations.

Customisation is crucial for us to remain competitive and meet our customers’ requirements. Flexible, made to order solutions, have become even more popular over the last few years. In the ever-evolving landscape of material handling, the rule one size fits all, no longer applies. Customers are looking for solutions for greater functionality, higher load ratings, larger dimensions and methods of handling unusual loads.

B&B has a long history of assisting companies who require tailor-made handling solutions. Our investment in software and training, together with our top of the range production machinery, allows us to design and manufacture bespoke handling solutions across all industries.

We have adopted a strategic and comprehensive approach to quality engineering and manufacturing, ensuring that the highest standards are met throughout our product development and manufacturing process. We have robust processes, systems and advanced manufacturing capabilities so we can achieve the highest levels of quality on every product.

Customer satisfaction is also an essential step to drive our quality process. Understanding and measuring our customer experience gives us a valuable insight into our products and performance. We work with the very best suppliers which drives substantial improvements in quality, innovation and helps us to reenforce our continuous improvement culture.

Our post order support is key for B&B and our customers. We provide a dedicated account manager for every single customer, together with a full team of qualified, experienced, field service engineers who are strategically based throughout the UK. Technical support, parts support and short-term hire contracts means that our post order service is the most comprehensive and extensive in the UK market. 

The number of attachments covered under B&B service contracts has grown significantly over the last year, with new national service contracts in place with major forklift companies throughout the UK. We offer bespoke service, maintenance and support plans, ensuring the best plans for every individual requirement and budget.

The importance of face-to-face meetings with both new and existing customers is immeasurable for us as a business. IMHX is unique in the way that it is the only UK exhibition that the whole materials handling industry attends.

It provides us the opportunity to showcase our latest products and services, gives us a physical platform for testing new products in the market, and gather insights into customer behaviours whilst providing unmatched access to buyers.