AFAENGINEERING

your engineer in the quad cities

Big companies have their own engineers. Now your business can have one, too.

I'm Alex, an electrical control & data systems engineer here in the Quad Cities. You tell me the problem; I design the fix and build it, getting your machines, spreadsheets and software to work together on your phone, your computer or your shop floor.

Tell me about your problem See what I do
  • The first conversation is free
  • I come to your place
  • You own what I build

Davenport · Bettendorf · Moline · Rock Island · East Moline · and nearby towns

sound familiar?

Most of the work I do starts with a sentence like one of these.

“Our inventory lives in three spreadsheets, and none of them match.”

data & dashboards

“I find out the cooler failed when the food is already lost.”

automation & sensors

“We type every order twice: once in the shop, once in the books.”

custom software

“The machine is from 1998, and the guy who knew the program retired.”

PLCs & controls

“I can't tell which jobs actually make us money.”

data & dashboards

“We want to grow, but I don't know what to fix first.”

engineering projects

Each of these is an engineering problem, and most of them are smaller than they feel. Finding the real cause and building a fix that fits your business is my job.

what I do

Four kinds of work, one engineer who understands all of them.

A real project usually mixes two or three of these. A sensor is only useful if its data reaches a screen that someone reads, and a dashboard is only as good as the data behind it. Knowing the whole chain, from the machine to the phone, is what lets me keep things simple.

Animation: a rough sketch of a problem becomes a process drawing. The oven is found to be the bottleneck, a second oven is added, output doubles, and the drawing is marked ready to build. AFA ENGINEERING PROCESS LAYOUT REV A B “the line keeps backing up” RECEIVE MIX BAKE PACK BOTTLENECK BAKE 2 208V · 3Ø · 40A OUTPUT ×2 READY TO BUILD
FIG. 01from a problem to a plan

01 · engineering projects

From a problem you can describe to a plan you can build.

Before anyone buys equipment or writes code, someone has to understand how the work really flows. I walk your floor, talk with the people who do the job, take measurements and find where the time goes. Then I design the solution: the process, the layout, the equipment and the numbers, in documents your team and your contractors can follow.

For example

  • A bakery adding a second oven: layout, power and ventilation needs, and a plan contractors can quote.
  • A shop with a machine that keeps failing: find the root cause, not just the symptom.
  • A new production line, or a move to a bigger building, planned on paper before money is spent.
  • process map
  • drawings & schematics
  • equipment specs
  • cost estimate
  • step-by-step plan

I'm an electrical engineer licensed in Brazil (CREA-MG), not a U.S. Professional Engineer. When a project needs PE-stamped drawings or licensed electrical work, I bring in a licensed local professional and work alongside them.

Animation: data from spreadsheets, the register, machine sensors and accounting flows into one place. Bad records are filtered out, the rest is organized into one model, and a dashboard fills in with today's sales, a trend line and bars that keep updating. spreadsheets register sensors accounting clean orders customers one model DASHBOARD $12,900 sales today updated 6:00 AM
FIG. 02scattered numbers, one clear picture

02 · data & dashboards

Your numbers in one place, telling you something useful.

The data is usually already there, spread across the register, the accounting software, a few spreadsheets and the machines. I connect those sources, clean up the mess (duplicates, typos, three spellings of the same customer), build one model of how your business works, and turn it into a dashboard you can check on your phone in the morning. Then we sit down and look at what it's telling you.

For example

  • A restaurant: sales by hour and food cost by dish, from the POS to your phone every morning.
  • A store: what's selling, what's sitting on the shelf, and when to reorder.
  • A contractor: the real cost and margin of every job, not just the estimate.
  • data connections
  • clean data model
  • dashboards for phone, TV or PC
  • automatic reports
  • forecasts
Animation: a small production line with a conveyor, a press and a sensor, wired to a PLC. Every part is counted on the owner's phone. When a part jams at the sensor, the line stops and an alert reaches the phone right away; once it is cleared, the line runs again. PLC IIoT gateway sensor B2 LINE 1 running stopped 1,284 parts today LINE 1 DOWN jam at B2 7:42 AM your phone
FIG. 03machines that report, and react

03 · automation · PLC · IIoT

Machines that report what they're doing, and react before you have to.

This is where I started: robots on an automotive paint line, then PLCs and SCADA in a mine. For a small manufacturer or shop, it means programming or fixing PLCs, adding sensors to machines that have none, and connecting the floor to the office, so part counts, downtime and alarms reach a screen or your phone without anyone writing them down. Smart manufacturing sized for a small shop, with no enterprise platform required.

For example

  • A machine shop: part counts and downtime for every machine, on a TV on the shop floor.
  • A walk-in cooler or freezer that texts you before the food is at risk.
  • An old machine whose program nobody has: back it up, document it, update it.
  • PLC & HMI programming
  • sensors & retrofits
  • machine monitoring
  • alarms to your phone
  • documentation & backups

Wiring and panel work is done by a licensed electrician. I design, program and start up the system together with them.

Animation: five separate tools (a spreadsheet, orders by email, a notebook, a PDF schedule and a sticky note) merge into one application. The same application then runs on a desktop computer, a tablet and a phone, all connected to one database, and a change made on one screen shows up on the others. ? ? ? ? ? copy · paste · retype INVENTORY.XLSX ORDERS — EMAIL NOTEBOOK SCHEDULE.PDF CALL MIKE one system one database desktop web · tablet phone
FIG. 04five tools become one system

04 · custom software

One system for your business, instead of five that don't talk to each other.

Most small businesses run on a patchwork: a spreadsheet here, an app there, a notebook by the register, and a lot of copying between them. I build software around the way you already work: one system for orders, inventory, jobs, customers or scheduling that runs in a web browser, on a phone or on the office computer. My brother Fernando, a full-stack developer, builds it with me. If you like a tool you already use, we keep it and connect it.

For example

  • An auto repair shop: work orders on a tablet, parts and labor in one place, and a text to the customer when the car is ready.
  • A small manufacturer: orders, production and shipping on one screen instead of three spreadsheets.
  • A service business: quotes, jobs and invoices in one app that works out on the road.
  • web, phone & desktop apps
  • connections to the tools you keep
  • training
  • your code, your data
  • support

who I work with

Small and mid-sized businesses around the Quad Cities.

If your business has a process, some data and a problem that keeps coming back, I can probably help. A few examples:

Restaurants & food service

Cooler and freezer alarms on your phone, food cost by dish, sales by the hour.

automation · data

Retail stores

Inventory that matches the shelf, reorder alerts, and sales numbers you can actually read.

data · software

Auto repair & body shops

Work orders on a tablet, parts and labor in one place, a text when the car is ready.

software

Machine shops & manufacturers

PLC programs, machine monitoring, downtime and scrap tracking, new life for old machines.

automation · engineering · data

Contractors & trades

Real job costing, quotes and a schedule the whole crew can see from the job site.

software · data

Warehouses & distribution

Barcode scanning, pick lists and stock levels you can trust.

software · automation

Farms & ag businesses

Sensors on bins, pumps and barns, with alerts sent to your phone.

automation · data

Offices & service businesses

No more retyping between systems, and reports that put themselves together.

software · data

Don't see your business here? Ask anyway. The problems are more alike than the businesses. I work on site around the Quad Cities, and remotely for software and data work.

how I work

Simple, personal, and in writing.

  1. We talk

    A free conversation of about 30 minutes, by phone, video or at your place. You explain the problem in your own words. No jargon and no pressure.

  2. I come and look

    I visit, watch the work, look at your spreadsheets and machines, and ask a lot of questions. Most answers are on the floor, not in the office.

  3. You get a written proposal

    Scope, timeline and a fixed price, before any work starts. If an app you can buy off the shelf solves your problem, I'll tell you, and you won't need me.

  4. We build it in small steps

    I design it, and on software and data work my brother Fernando, a developer, builds it with me. You see something working early, then again at each checkpoint we set together. We adjust as we go, so there are no surprises at the end.

  5. It's yours, and we stay close

    I train your team and hand over the documentation, the code and the data. After that, we stay close by to help keep it running and improve it, on the support terms written into your proposal.

Curious who's behind this? More about me

questions

Questions people usually ask.

Is my business too small for this?

Probably not. Many useful projects are small: one alarm, one dashboard, one report that builds itself. We start with the problem that costs you the most and only go further if it's worth it.

How much does it cost?

It depends on the problem, so I don't publish a price list. After our first conversation and a visit, you get a fixed price in writing. You'll know the total before any work starts.

Do I have to replace the software I already use?

No. If a tool works for you, we keep it and connect it to the rest. I'll only suggest replacing something when keeping it costs you more than changing it.

Who owns what you build?

You do: the code, the data, the drawings and the documentation. I build with common, well-known technology, so any competent engineer or developer could maintain it in the future.

What happens if something breaks?

You contact me directly. Support is part of every proposal, with what it covers and how we respond written down, and because everything is documented, problems get found and fixed fast.

Will you be at my business every day?

No, and most projects don't need that. You're not hiring someone to sit in your office full-time. You're hiring an engineer and a developer who talk with you directly, understand the problem, design the fix, build it and stay close afterwards to help keep it running. Visits, check-ins and delivery dates are agreed with you up front and go into the proposal.

Do you work on site?

Yes. I'm based in the Quad Cities and visit businesses in Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, Rock Island, East Moline and nearby towns. Software and data work can also be done remotely.

Are you a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Iowa or Illinois?

No. I'm an electrical engineer licensed in Brazil (CREA-MG). My work here is process, data, automation and software engineering. When a project legally needs a PE stamp or a licensed electrician, I bring one in and work with them.

Do you speak Spanish?

Honestly, not fluently, but my Portuguese gets me pretty far. You can write to me in Spanish and I'll understand, and there's a Spanish version of this page.

get in touch

Tell me what's going on.

A few lines are enough. I read every message myself and reply personally, with an idea of the next step.

[email protected]
What can I help with? (pick any)