PIC provides turnkey construction capabilities in new and refurbished precision industrial equipment installation and civil, steel erection, piping and electrical disciplines.

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Precision Industrial Contractors (PIC) Inc. takes pride in the fact it rarely hears from its clients when things are going well. Instead, Jack Romanchock, industrial technology engineer, says PIC only gets called on to save the day.

“We’re quick to respond, and we’re very versatile,” Romanchock says. “The key thing for us is we’re customer oriented. They don’t come to us if things are going well. They come to us if they have needs, and we resolve those for them.”

Rod Schultz founded PIC in 1989 as a merit-shop industrial construction company based in Woodland, Wash. What started as a two-man operation has grown to 80 employees and now provides turnkey construction capabilities in new and refurbished precision industrial equipment installation and civil, steel erection, piping and electrical disciplines.

The company also offers fabrication services, hazardous material handling capabilities, machinery retrofit and relocation work, he adds.

Romanchock, who has been with PIC for eight years, took time to speak with U.S. Business Review about the company’s growth, recent trends in the industry and the family atmosphere PIC creates for its employees.

U.S. Business Review: Are there any developments or innovations going on in the company today?
Jack Romanchock: We’re growing. We’ve picked up another pair of supervisors, which are key to how we work. We work through the supervisors.

Good people and good communication make us fly. We give [supervisors] good people and augment them with local talent, and we allow them to call the shots. While on site, they see problems firsthand, communicate what’s needed and we go for it.

USBR: What trends are going on in the industry today?
JR: The big paper mills seem to be going away. There are just so many big mills out there, and so many are going overseas.

We’ve branched out and now do quite a bit of work for the food industry. It is nothing new to us, but we’re growing with companies like Dole , Nestlé, Leprino Foods and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream.

USBR: How must PIC operate differently in the food industry?
JR: The food industry is much more particular. It has FDA compliance to meet and that is the big thing. We need to have the proper talent.

We can’t just put anybody in those positions. We hire people who handle those businesses and are familiar with that customer and their processes.

USBR: What other trends are happening in your industry?
JR: Safety is a bigger and bigger part of the environment. We’ve developed much more comprehensive safety programs and enforcement and training to go with it.

We have a full-time safety supervisor who is now in Plymouth, N.C., doing safety training.

USBR: How did you develop these safety initiatives?
JR: We recently did a job in British Columbia and we looked at the WorkSafeBC program. We used it as a model because it is similar to OSHA, but with some enhancements. If we can meet or exceed the WorkSafeBC program, then we’re safe anywhere.

USBR: Can you think of a recent challenge PIC has faced and how it overcame it?
JR: A big challenge with projects out of Canada is getting our employees into Canada. Since the Bush administration, it has been virtually impossible to get work visas for Americans.

Now, we get temporary visas for key employees and work with Canadian employees to perform the work. So, we actually sub most of the work out to Canadian [employees] the challenge has been to maintain our schedule after visas were not going to be approved.

USBR: Did this delay any projects?
JR: We had to scramble, but were able to man up and maintain  the schedule as outlined in the contract. British Columbia is now undergoing a huge expansion, and the labor force is next to nothing which added to the challenge.

USBR: Will this deter PIC from taking projects in Canada?
JR: No, because we know how to handle it now. When we bid, we do it knowing we have to use their people.