The Secret to Efficient Drilling is Hiding in Your Data

The second in a five-part series exploring how data can optimize your drilling operations.

Missed the first article?
Check it out here: Centralized and Standardized Data

#2 Connecting the Dots with Real-Time Data

Drilling operations rely on field data to track key metrics—but how reliable is that information after hours, or even days, of delay?

Non-standardized, manual data entry slows operations, increases inefficiencies, and forces companies to make decisions based on outdated or incomplete information.

Delayed Data, Delayed Decisions

Outdated data entry methods create costly delays. The longer the lag, the less time companies have to identify and correct issues before they escalate.

William Ward, Capital Drilling’s Operations Manager for East Africa, shares the challenge:

“If data isn’t captured correctly that day, by the time it reaches invoicing, the client sends it back. It delays invoices, payments, and causes a lot of frustration.”

“Our teams would spend hours trying to clean up data that was incorrect or missed,” Ward added, “Our project managers didn’t have time to focus on their operational requirements”

Missing, Mishandled, and Outdated

Even digital tools like Excel fail to provide the accuracy and structure needed to make timely operational changes.

Disconnected systems and non-standardized workflows force companies to react to problems only after they’ve already caused delays.

“In the past, [non-standardized systems] have created hours of unnecessary review and frustration,” Ward explains, “there’s a lot of human error—any slight change generates new data and causes a lot of issues.”

The inconsistencies create an excessive amount of administrative work for the project teams to fix. Instead of finding ways to optimize operations, they’re spending hours analyzing incorrect data.  

“Incorrect data from the first process, creates a roll-on effect of delays,” Ward added.

While companies can still extract insights from manual and non-standardized digital systems, the process is slow and by the time decisions are made, the data is outdated, reducing efficiency and driving up costs.

Jody Conrad, Krux Analytics President and CEO, highlights the risk:

“How do you answer questions after they’ve already happened? You need information in real time.”

“If you get to the end and you realize you’re missing information, you have to go back to the start,” Conrad continued.

“If there’s no way to aggregate and review accuracy, that information is essentially lost—until it’s finally pulled together, at which point it’s already outdated.”

The Power of Real-Time Data

With a standardized data entry system, companies can eliminate guesswork, reduce errors, and make decisions faster.

“The real-time data is really the difference that helps,” Conrad explains, “you see the information on a daily basis so you can identify the errors”

A key component of seeing that real-time data, is field data entry; ensuring that all required information is captured correctly directly from the field creates a structure that lends itself to instant analytics.  

William Ward adds, “we like that if a report is filled out incorrectly Krux’s system doesn’t allow the user to the next stage; it’s all streamlined into one basket with clean data.”

“We can now look at our live KPI data to assists us as a business and make informed decisions based on downward trends,” he continued, “whether it’s mechanical or operational, we can put a solution in to give our clients the confidence that projects are being looked after—it’s definitely the way forward.”