Industry Voices: PC Romano
Piercarlo (PC) Romano is chairman-elect of the board of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) and president, Avid Solutions Inc., a CSIA Certified member headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C.
What are the main goals and objectives for your facility for 2013?
2013 will be a busy year for Avid Solutions. With a new office in Atlanta in 2011 and Brazil in 2012, plus growth in our existing offices, we experienced 30% growth last year and are expecting similar growth this year. Onboarding talent and integrating people into our company is a huge focus. Beyond that, we plan to make strides on some longer-term strategic initiatives. For example, we see a growing chasm between the process knowledge the plants retain and the automation knowledge that system integrators are increasingly providing. In order to bridge that gap, we need to continuously develop process and application knowledge in our people. Organizations that are great at developing and deploying process and automation knowledge will be the big winners.
What are the obstacles to meeting those goals?
Bandwidth. Fast growth consumes time and resources, and makes it hard to progress on long-term strategic objectives, so our strategic planning needs to be realistic and our execution consistent.
How much are you affected by the ongoing issues in the federal government?
Our manufacturing clients lack certainty and visibility into things like environmental regulations and taxes. But this has been the case for several years now, and certain capital projects cannot be delayed indefinitely or are justifiable today. So, today our backlogs and prospects remain healthy, despite the uncertainty.
What factors outside of government will continue to affect manufacturing in 2013?
Trends and developments such as shale gas and onshoring should continue to have positive effects on manufacturing this year. But the tight market for experienced talent is a more predictable long-term trend. This will increasingly constrain manufacturing for the foreseeable future.
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2012 Salary Survey
In a year when manufacturing continued to lead the economic rebound, it makes sense that plant manager bonuses rebounded. Plant Engineering’s annual Salary Survey shows both wages and bonuses rose in 2012 after a retreat the year before.
Average salary across all job titles for plant floor management rose 3.5% to $95,446, and bonus compensation jumped to $15,162, a 4.2% increase from the 2010 level and double the 2011 total, which showed a sharp drop in bonus.