CUSTOMER STORIES
Topdrill Strikes Gold Through Data-Driven Efficiencies Delivered with the AI Data Cloud
With Snowflake, Topdrill is improving safety, compliance and performance across its rigs and driving efficiencies in internal processes.
95%+ improvement in compliance
99% faster when performing safety checks
Mining for efficiencies using data
Established in 2006, Topdrill was founded by Tim Topham with a single drill rig in a small yard in Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. Since then, Topdrill has grown to become a leading exploration drilling partner to the country’s top-tier mining companies. The business is owned by Topgroup, an umbrella organization that aims to provide end-to-end services and solutions to Australia’s resources sector.
Data is critical to Topdrill’s operations — but the business was not always able to use it to its full potential. When Dr. Vahid Golkar joined the business in 2021 as Data and Analytics Manager, alongside Michael Begg, General Manager of Digital Transformation and Analytics, they quickly recognized the potential for transformation. At the time, Topdrill relied on siloed spreadsheets and legacy systems to meet its objectives. Together, Golkar and Begg identified that a unified data architecture could revolutionize the business’s performance across areas such as productivity, regulatory compliance and safety.
Story Highlights
- Consolidates and simplifies the complex data stores that inhibited productivity: Using the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, Topdrill has moved from a siloed, disparate data environment to a consolidated single source of truth that enables faster, more accurate, data-driven decision-making.
- Increases efficiencies across the board, from compliance to rig performance: With Snowflake, Topdrill has implemented several measures to enhance rig productivity and performance, including automatic notifications when a rig engine is off for more than 20 minutes and next-day identification of poorly performing rigs to enable rapid remediation. This contributed to a 77% reduction in downtime over the past four years and a 49% improvement in average drilling meters per shift.
- Moves from email-based information sharing to real-time data shares: With the Snowflake platform, Topdrill is sharing data in real-time with the systems of eight clients to enable rapid analysis and action.
After extensive research, they assessed that Snowflake was more innovative and had a brighter future than the alternatives. “Snowflake thought ‘out of the box’ and tackled problems differently,” Golkar said. “Its approach to data sharing was unique, and there were a lot of tools and integrations available to augment its capabilities.”
A three-day training course further opened the team’s eyes to the value the Snowflake platform could deliver to Topdrill without requiring extensive training for team members who weren’t data engineers.
A streamlined architecture that slashed time spent on safety checks by 99%
Topdrill began its analytics revamp with a small project to collect operational data spanning drilling crew shifts. The analytics team wanted to reduce the 55-plus minutes each supervisor spent reviewing this data for each rig, improving the identification and remediation of problems that hampered the achievement of daily drilling targets.
The value of this project, in which data was captured in Excel and stored in OneDrive, with SQL tools used to push the data to Tableau for visualization, prompted Topdrill’s senior leadership to approve the development of a powerful data architecture based on the Snowflake AI Data Cloud.
77%
reduction in downtime over four years
Working closely with Snowflake, the Topdrill analytics team built an architecture that ingests operational data from multiple systems into the Snowflake AI Data Cloud for transformation into an analysis-ready data model. Results are presented through Tableau. This immediately enabled the business to reduce the time required to check safety performance at each rig from nearly an hour to less than 20 seconds.
With the new architecture now well-established and driving improvements across the business, Topdrill is extending its use beyond the analytics team to the commercial and finance teams. The business has taken measures to optimize its use of Snowflake through more efficient data-pipeline designs and plans to review its data modeling strategy.
5
Days faster completion of payroll processing
49%
Increase in average drilling per shift
Vastly improved compliance rates through better visibility over workers’ tasks
Using Snowflake has helped improve compliance and safety across Topdrill’s fleet of rigs, with Golkar estimating compliance rates reaching over 95%. “We have consolidated records of which worker or supervisor visited which site, and any systems that submitted tasks and requirements for a given day,” said Golkar. “This enables us to properly evaluate compliance for any required time period.” Overall safety compliance rates, as measured by the proportion of workers who have completed the required safety tests, are now as high as 99%.
Gaining budgetary insights and achieving payroll efficiency with simplified financial systems
Topdrill’s finance team uses dashboards created in Snowflake to track spend versus budget with greater accuracy, enabling better financial oversight. The platform also captures data required for complex payroll systems, which augment hourly base pay with a reward system designed to increase crew productivity. “We finalized payroll five days earlier than previously, delivering significant efficiencies across our crew resources,” said Golkar.
“From the perspective of our board, Snowflake is integral to our strategy to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. It’s been an absolute game-changer for us!"
Dr. Vahid Golkar
Data and Analytics Manager, Topdrill
Seamless data integration to improve operational productivity and minimize maintenance downtime by 77%
Before implementing Snowflake, Topdrill’s reporting cycles were limited to monthly and weekly updates, which often delayed critical insights and decision-making. By leveraging Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud, the cycle was reduced to daily reporting, significantly improving the visibility of operational performance. More recently, with the integration of internet of things (IoT) data into the platform, Topdrill has achieved an hourly overview of operations, enabling teams to make the right decisions at the right time. These advancements have directly contributed to a 49% increase in average meters drilled per shift, showcasing the power of real-time insights in optimizing productivity and operational efficiency.
Topdrill has also achieved a 77% reduction in maintenance downtime over the past four years, thanks to the integration of IoT data and the implementation of real-time engine-off notifications. These notifications, sent directly to both the maintenance and operations teams, have enabled rapid identification and resolution of potential issues. The seamless collaboration between these teams, empowered by data-driven insights, has been instrumental in minimizing downtime and ensuring rigs operate at peak efficiency. This achievement underscores the value of proactive maintenance supported by real-time data.
More secure data collaboration with clients
Snowflake has also enabled Topdrill to implement a comprehensive data-sharing strategy in response to client requests for greater operational visibility. Through Snowflake, Topdrill moved from sending emails with attachments to secure data sharing. Now, eight clients use shared accounts to extract data for their own analysis, providing transparency and improving collaboration.
