THE HISTORY OF TCM CONSULTING, LLC
THE BEGINNING
TCM Consulting, LLC was founded in 2013 by Michael T. Mattich P.E. as a simple... "coincidence." After being invited back to work for one of his former employment companies, he was given the option to either work through a technical temp agency, or to charter an LLC and work as a 1099 contractor/consultant. Michael preferred the latter option, and TCM Consulting, LLC was created.
During that first year of tenure, he achieved his Mechanical Professional Engineering [P.E.] license. He was then offered a full-time position as a Senior Mechanical Engineer with the company, and TCM Consulting, LLC would then lay dormant for the next 6 years.
In 2017, while the company was still lying dormant, he transitioned to another company, a local steel foundry, as the plant's Capital Project Engineer. This is where he would find his new interest and passion for capital project life-cycle management.
PATH TO PROFESSIONALISM
In November of 2019, A sudden layoff caused Michael to look for a full-time employment elsewhere. As fate intervened, he was invited to join a sub-contractor for work at an out-of-state large integrated steel mill, and in order to sub-contract, Michael would have to restart TCM Consulting back into a viable LLC after it had been a dormant company for so long.
Details of the work weren't known yet until he arrived at the plant. Coincidentally, the work being asked of them was to develop FEL engineering deliverables for the mill's up-and-coming small-capital projects. Michael embraced the opportunity and took it as a sign that this was the new path for the company. After much consideration, he decided that the best plan for his and his family's future was to stop looking for full-time re-employment and to begin reviving TCM Consulting, LLC into the small-capital project development and service company that it needed to become.
THE MODERN DARK AGE
Over the next few months, Michael was frequently visiting the plant and developing the first capital project along with other requested plant improvement items. The work was getting noticed because soon after, plant stakeholders were now requesting conceptual & preliminary design phases on two additional larger projects. With this, TCM Consulting started showing signs of a promising future. That is...until the 2020 pandemic started to take the world, and TCM Consulting, LLC, down with it.
Michael would learn quickly the harsh reality of a new business venture. TCM Consulting's clientele network, project portfolio, and backlog wasn't yet deep enough to sustain a financial down-turn. Travel restrictions were put into place, no out-of-state contractor visitations were allowed, and once again, capital projects were tabled until the world's economy figured out a way to adapt to this new way of doing business.
WEATHERING THE STORM
Now facing the grave reality of a financial ruin, Michael needed to start diversifying TCM Consulting, LLC into more than just FEL capital project development if he wanted it to succeed. During the pandemic, he got by with building decks, painting houses, landscaped, mowed lawns, and did other types of handyman work. At the same time, he started to further develop the TCM Consulting brand. To keep his motivation high for his company's success, he began researching and reading small business success development and entrepreneur success literature, keeping in contact with his professional network, learning new CAD techniques, studying ANSI accredited standards, etc., and then...a break in the storm occurred.
In May of 2020, with pandemic work-travel restrictions starting to be lifted, plants were inviting previous contractors and project consultants back to help. It was time to get back to work!
IN BUSINESS, DIVERSIFICATION IS THE "GOLDEN RULE"
Even though there was now a supporting backlog of work for TCM Consulting at the plant, Michael knew the work was limited, and the company could not sustain another crippling blow like it did a year ago. Fortunately, another opportunity would help diversify TCM Consulting into the Energy sector. In February of 2021, a position for being an independent freelancer for a Hydrogen-producing start-up company came up, and they were looking for some credible engineers, drafters, designers, etc., to help foster it. Due to the pandemic, this technology start-up company was completely virtual. This is where he learned how to use one of TCM Consulting's most valuable and powerful business tools for running it as a modern-day hybrid company. He realized quickly that learning to master a cloud-based business platform was going to be essential for taking TCM Consulting, LLC to the next level.
For Michael, the first quarter of 2021 was splitting hours between working long hours on the steel plant's outage projects, and in the evenings, getting the Hydrogen fuel start-up company online and collaborating. Over the next couple of weeks, the Hydrogen production start-up company had expanded from Four founding consultants to 15 virtual project collaborators. Eventually, the company would become self-sufficient with an IT group now running the IT platform, and Michael's roll would then be shifted primarily over to the engineering group. It's here that Michael would learn the process of how fuel-grade hydrogen would be made through the steam-methane reforming process along with learning every ASME, ISO, API, NFPA, ASTM, SAE, and CGA standard ever created for Hydrogen!
BACK ON THE PATH
With the Hydrogen production start-up project along with a few other small side projects, Michael continued to build on to TCM Consulting's growing success by refining its brand and credibility, but it still needed to get back to what it intended to become in the first place, a capital project engineering design and project management service company. And with that, in the beginning of 2022, the steel plant Michael had frequently traveled to was planning to revive the idled capital projects that were tabled during the pandemic and invited him back to continue the work he began a few years back.
Over the course of the 2022 year and beyond, TCM Consulting, LLC had been involved in helping manage multiple capital projects as well as a technical support for its associate companies and has been expanding its client list ever since.
In January of 2023, Michael joined the Project Management Institute (PMI) as a full member, has begun the process of obtaining first registering for the prerequisite PMI-ACP exam, and eventually will begin the process of achieving his PMP certification.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Seeing the horizon on where initial project development was going and what modern available technology were available now to assist in it, in January of 2024, TCM Consulting, LLC made the decision to exponentially upgraded its rapid project layout development capabilities by investing in 3D point cloud scanning technology as well as VR/AR project installation visualization. Since then, it has successfully integrated that technology time and time again on developing preliminary layouts for small, mid, and large capital industrial projects. With this proven success, TCM Consulting, LLC will continue to invest into the latest and most modern equipment methods of reality capturing technology. Until then...TCM Consulting, LLC still continues to grow stronger as an engineering design process and capital project life-cycle management service provider.
Thank you for interest in TCM Consulting, and I hope to hear from you soon on how we can assist you with whatever project, large or small, you would like to accomplish.
Best Regards,
Michael T. Mattich, P.E.
Founder / Technical Director
"Small business owners have very big ambitions
with very little margins for error. The passion that they portray when they speak about their company should reflect themselves, and there should be no distinguishment between them and their company.
You ARE the company...and the company is YOU!
if it fails, you fail with it."
- Michael T. Mattich"