Faces of the Diversion: Jorge Villareal

Jorge Villarreal: [00:00:14] Hi, my name is Jorge Luis Villarreal and I am a business development specialist here at the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Project. As the business development specialist here, my job is to implement new technologies, create high-level reports from the collection of data in the field, and make sure that we can turn them into readable reports where we can make high-level decisions.

[00:00:34] An example of some of the technology that I’ve implemented here is a software specific to the Fargo-Moorhead Diversion called Atlas. What we do is we collect all the data via physically installed hardware and then from there we send over the data into a SQL database. From there we’re able to organize the data how we see fit. It tells us things like production per day, production per hour, production by the machine, as well as our efficiencies.

[00:01:02] Management is able to use that data to see how much production was done the day before, verify it with the foreman, and then see where the next area is that we need to focus on or if we need to allocate more resources to a specific area. We have a custom app where we have the operator tell us exactly what it is that they’re doing every day, and all of that has an assignment inside the software where it auto-generates things like cost code, cost, and areas where our production is really heavy. Those components play a crucial role in being able to collect data so we can actually make those reports.

[00:01:44] You know, working on a project like this, you think about a lot of things. Not only about how it’s protecting the metropolitan area, but how it’s actually helping expand infrastructure, and in the long run this project is actually helping raise the value of the Fargo-Moorhead area on so many levels.

[00:02:10] A big challenge that I had to overcome is that there is no reference point anywhere in the United States. This diversion is new. So the tough part is not only making it good enough but making it excellent.

[00:02:27] Sometimes we forget, especially when we work on this project, how difficult things are in the moment, not realizing that there’s a bigger goal at the end of it all. And realizing that that goal is not only going to help us, but it’ll help our children and our grandchildren and all the future generations.