Aspirations to start Engineering Business!! 9

[TheRealEngineer]

Hi All,

I have masters degree in Mechanical engineering but not PE license. In past, I worked for several small and huge corporations (Fortune 10)in different functions as Design Engineer,Supplier Quality Engineer, Product Validation Engineer etc. As I never needed to be a PE to work for big jobs in big corporations, i never really looked into getting the PE license myself. Now I want to start my own company in Minnesota. I would like to start by providing engineering consultation services to the companies and its getting very confusing to whether i can do that without being PE. Also, i have not been able to clearly understand which services i can provide without being PE. For example, lets say i would like to help a client with their supplier quality assurance and quality management system related work, am i allowed to do that under my own company? Is there any clear list posted anywhere that shows which engineering related tasks/functions can be done without PE under my own company and which cannot? Is manufacturing/quality support even considered as engineering work?? What is considered engineering practice vs other management tasks? Mostly by reading the Statutes i felt they were more related to civil/construction/architectural/geoscience related stuff, or using the term engineering in general.

If anyone of you have faced similar situation? Any solutions? Suggestions? Who should i contact? Where to look this type of info?? It appears “Engineers” per state are different than “Engineers” working in all small and big industries/corporations and it appears the same work which i was doing inside the companies i used to work for is not allowed to do on my own by making my own company.

Thanks a ton in advance for help !!

 

[TheRealEngineer]

Thank you all for your valuable insights..Just a quick update- I did not receive any response from board(Probably because of holidays or so). The board's staff was kind to hear me out, but not really very informative about my questions (Probably because they are not allowed to talk in legal matters). They did suggest me to check with any legal counsel. I called small business assistance wing - no answers from there as well.

So, I ended up calling an attorney for initial consultation and they helped me understand some of the things I had questions with. Basically, assisting/consulting for the productivity or management type of actions that I anyways was looking for should be okay. They also suggested to use some form of disclaimers wherever and whenever possible (if I feel it is getting close to engineering function) to make it obvious to the clients that I do not provide professional engineering services and it should be checked/approved by their own licensed PE. Somewhere along those lines.

One question that still lingers in my head is in the following sentence

according to you guys what would be your interpretation of word compliance? I thought its like confirming something to internal prints of the company (maybe coz of my quality assurance background). Attorney thought it means Compliance to the LAW or in terms of Law (maybe coz of his law background) what you guys think/know? I see this standard statement in almost all the PE acts around every state.

I really appreciate all your responses and willingness to help. I got lots of valuable information and guidance from you guys than anywhere out on the internet, so THANK YOU...

 

[phamENG]

In the structural world, we have "Special Inspections" for certain types of buildings. This is a building code requirement that a set of inspections above and beyond (though often similar to) local code official inspections. They have to be carried out by an approved entity, which typically means an engineering firm, and ultimately signed off by a PE. So it's not so much compliance with the law - a design may exceed the minimum requirements of the building code (the law) - but assuring compliance with it remains the purview of a PE.

I suspect that as long as you're not 'assuring compliance with specifications and design" developed by a PE, you're okay. In other words, if you advise a plant on a new management process and then observe them and give a report on whether or not they complied with your designed process, you should be okay because that process didn't require a professional engineer to create it.