It is in the books. One year ago my employer offered a voluntary severance and I decided to make the jump to consulting as a control systems engineer. In that year I have worked for four different customers and met with another eight potential customers, and the thing I have learned is that I have a lot of people who I have known over the 28 years that remember me! While I do consult back to MillerCoors and am thankful for that, all my other customers have been former work associates and friends or referrals from those same people. I absolutely love catching up with those old friends and acquaintences and talking about what we might do together in the future!
The other thing that I have learned is that manufacturers need engineering support. Sometimes companies I work for don’t have any project engineers on staff or a single engineering/maintenance manager who is spread too thin, but other companies have people that do things similar to me, but they are overtaxed with too much work. Sometimes they need me to reload a PLC, figure out why a control system has glitches that cause lost production time or they need other support on their existing equipment and processes. While I can do projects and help them with new systems too, my extensive experience makes me a quick study on learning their existing systems and making those assets work better!
While PLC and HMI programming, control panel design and documentation are the skills all control systems integrators offer. I have found there are differntiators in what Saga Automation offers. My overhead is low, so my pricing can beat my competitors. However I have talked with other small integrators, engineers and contractors that stand ready to expand Saga Automation’s capabilities, so I can act as a project engineer on my own for small scopes of work or a project manager using these associates to form a solution team for a larger, more complex project.
Being a business owner again has been the best part of this year. I left the best job of my life (MillerCoors) for an even greater, more rewarding job. I look forward to the next year!