Motor, drive, and control consultant in Los Angeles

I got a press release from an engineer that does motor, drive and control consulting in Inglewood CA. As a former consultant myself, I am always happy to help out these smaller shops. I have several friends up here in the valley who have been consulting for decades. They really do achieve better results than an average engineer since they have seen so many more problems than someone who has worked at the same place for 20 years.

George Gulalo, the President of MTT Technical Services also runs a website about motion control. His press release points out:

• Keep your engineering costs down by delaying new hires until the economic situation improves.
• Support your engineering design, optimization and evaluation activities with technologists who have decades of experience.
• Accelerate your response to your customer needs with a fast response support team with experience in many different applications and motor technologies.
• Technology expertise in support of Mil/Aero, industrial and energy applications.
• Brushless motors and generators; ac induction motors and generators; brush dc pm motors, stepper motors, and in the above technologies: Motor drives, motion controllers, power conversion (generator to grid) power and electronics.

The thing that most companies balk at is the price of consultants— my buddies charge $75 to $120 an hour. But a billable contractor hour is a lot more productive than an hour of a salaried engineer. Most of my clients used to try and wangle me into a fixed price contract. If you are considering doing consulting, perhaps because you have been laid off, I would strongly advise you to not provide fixed-price work, Things always go wrong and they always change. Agree on a scope of work and write it down. Any deviations or additions will imply more time and cost. Most consultants end up shaving off hours anyway and working for free, or maybe getting stiffed on the last payment. It is not a business for the feint of heart, but there are many times that using a consultant can really pay off, and it will cost less in the long run.

As and aside, I should point out that consulting is what got me into the editor job. As a consultant you have to document your work very well. So you tend to write a lot of formal proposals, analysis, and theory of operations, as well as doing schematics and board layout and service manuals. All that writing got me to the point where I could do this job.

I should also be a little careful about calling myself and others a consultant. If things are still the same, in California, to call yourself a consultant you have to have a PE certificate, which I never got. That is why I called myself a contract engineer and probably why MTT says they offer technical services and not consultant work. When you say the word “consultant” that may also trigger the acceptance of liability, which is never a good idea for a contract engineer. Consultants need Errors and Omission insurance; contract engineers and technical service bureaus do not. So if you are thinking about becoming a contractor or using a contractor, I think it is a great way to get things done fast and well, and in the long run it will be cheaper too.