Logidot brings predictive inbound intelligence to the automotive supply chain

Logidot is a London-based technology company that brings spatial intelligence to factories, warehouses and yards.

Its Smart Factory platform tracks the movement of stock, tools, vehicles and robots in real time using high-performance, plug-and-play sensors, feeding into a spatial intelligence platform that gives managers a live picture of what is happening across their operation. The aim of the solution is straightforward: turn that visibility into better decisions, less waste and more efficient use of people and resources. The company's existing capabilities are well established in warehouse environments – the question Logidot set out to answer on the Automotive Cluster Accelerator was whether that intelligence could be pushed further upstream, into the inbound logistics flows that feed production.  

The opportunity

Car factories run on precision. Millions of parts arrive daily from suppliers across the globe, and keeping production running depends on knowing what is coming, when it will land and in what form. In practice, that information is often patchy. Warehouse teams end up scheduling dock doors and labour with limited advance notice, which creates pressure, eats into productivity and contributes to extremely costly downtime.

The opportunity for Logidot was to push its capabilities upstream of the warehouse floor. Rather than starting from what has already arrived, the platform could tell operators what is on its way and help them get ready for it, turning a reactive process into a planned one. 

Why the company joined the accelerator programme

The Automotive Cluster Accelerator is delivered by Digital Catapult as part of the Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub; a programme designed to help manufacturers adopt digital technologies and strengthen supply chain resilience, while supporting startups and SMEs in validating solutions and building industry connections. The accelerator brought deep tech companies together with established automotive partners to tackle real supply chain challenges, providing selected companies with up to £100,000 in funding alongside direct industry access and technical support. 

For Logidot, there was a clear draw. The chance to work directly with VANTEC, a third-party logistics provider, and to test a new product idea against the realities of a live automotive operation. That kind of access to key decision-makers is difficult to secure independently, particularly when exploring a new part of the market. The programme offered the structure, funding and relationships to do it properly, something Digital Catapult has provided through the Digital Supply Chain Hub since 2022. 

The solution

Working with VANTEC, Logidot built a predictive inbound planning tool that extends its Smart Factory platform into the upstream logistics space. The tool ingests advanced shipping notice (ASN) data – the electronic notifications sent by suppliers ahead of deliveries – along with warehouse management system events and historical operational data. It then uses this to forecast truck arrival times and load formats, factoring in uncertainty and generating probabilistic estimates rather than fixed predictions.

Those forecasts feed into a dock scheduling system that recommends door slot assignments and helps managers plan labour and resources in advance. The output is a Dock Control Tower dashboard; a single view of what is arriving, when and in what volume, with alerts surfacing anything that looks likely to cause a problem before it does.  

Achieving success required close collaboration. Weekly calls with stakeholders from VANTEC and Digital Catapult were central to the process, helping the team unpick the real operational problems beneath the surface and shape a solution that would work in practice. The project also pushed Logidot into territory beyond its existing product – upstream of the warehouse floor and into the logistics flows that feeds it. 

Outcomes & results

By the end of the programme, Logidot had a working prototype that validated both the technical approach and the commercial case. The Dock Control Tower dashboard gave VANTEC the inbound visibility it needed, with the team gaining a thorough understanding of the data landscape, its quirks and how to consolidate it effectively across multiple sources.

The projected impact of a fully developed solution is substantial: service levels above 99.5% through better forewarning of deviations, a 10% improvement in labour efficiency, a 5% improvement in on-time rates and a 50% reduction in overtime costs. Looking further ahead, Logidot estimates that developing and productising this new capability could result in an incremental revenue potential of £7 billion in the UK alone. The next step is a further six months of development and customer pilots before the feature is integrated into the core Smart Warehouse platform.

Customer perspective

Stacey Mitchell, Customer Service Manager at VANTEC Europe, said: “This project took Logidot outside of its comfort zone by focusing on the upstream steps ahead of the warehousing process, but the team quickly grasped the requirements and what success looked like. The resulting dashboard exceeded our expectations and gave us exactly the visibility we needed.” 

For Logidot's own team, the value ran deeper than a single prototype. Working with live operational data from a major automotive Third-Party Logistics (3PL) organisation sharpened the product and opened up a new direction. Pedro Peres, CTO at Logidot, reflects: “It enabled us to further enhance our automated scheduling capabilities by applying our proprietary algorithmic expertise to real operational data from a third-party logistics provider supporting a major automotive manufacturer. That collaboration strengthened our solution and helped shape the development of a new product offering.” 

“The exposure to multiple decision-makers in an automotive supply chain and insights gained on the real challenges faced was extremely helpful in allowing us to create a prototype solution that delivers real value and can be a win-win for all stakeholders involved.”

Niccolo Corsini, CEO, Logidot