For Encon Mechanical (www.enconmech.com), the operative word is "turnkey." By that is meant a comprehensive offering of services for customers throughout the state of New Jersey.

Encon was founded in 1968 by Marty Indursky. His son, David, now serves as President. They've established a business model around the notion that owners should be able to count on them for wide-ranging facility needs.

Such services include design engineering, providing equipment and piping, performing sheet metal fabrication and installation, automating through digital controls, and, of course, service.

For Marty Indursky, providing owners with such turnkey service represents both a blessing and a curse. "It means all fingers point at us," Marty explains. "We could get all the blame or all the credit. But it's a risk we're willing to take."

In practice, of course, Encon excels in its approach to the market. In 2007, for example, Encon captured one of Contracting Business magazine's Design/Build Awards in the Retrofit/Renovation category. The referenced project was noted for a superior level of professionalism and customer satisfaction. And the KMC contribution to this project in terms of controls was a contributing factor in the award.

By the same token, the controls portion of Encon business does not have to represent a single source of income for the firm. "Our controls division," says David Indursky, "doesn't have to support the entire business. In fact, the vast majority of our controls work comes through our construction division. The controls component can save the customer money and we make sure they understand that."


Another distinguishing feature of the Encon offering is what they term, value engineering. David explains: "We are constantly looking for ways to change the design of a project in order to save energy. We do this in two venues: in the pre-design phase and in owner-direct negotiations. The idea is to give the end user more quality for less money. For example, intelligent changes in unit (mechanical equipment) distribution can achieve higher EER and lessen the need for sheet metal runs. Sheet metal reduction can save them 30% off project costs."

"We also realize some economies on the construction side," David continues. "We might, for example, run wires early to save on the controls work we have to do later on. If the job conditions change, we can respond quickly as opposed to working with a sub-contractor."

This hints at versatility among Encon team members. David and Marty look for flexible team members who can easily step in to tasks outside their daily norms. "If we need a sheet metal guy to pull cable," Marty says, "he can do that. They have to be experts in many areas."

Accordingly, Encon puts a great deal of effort into training and cross-training. "For service classes," David explains, "we'll send two and they will come back and train others." In fact, Encon puts enormous time and resources into training usually involving 3-4 classes per month. Training also occurs in informal ways through lessons learned when problems arise on a project.

How do they keep up? "Oh, we're always chasing our tails to some extent," David confesses. "Technology changes so quickly that we simply try to be not too many steps behind."

That modesty really belies the intelligent planning David and Marty do for the future of Encon. "We're striving to build a business model designed for our next 40 years," David says.

One market force they recognized early on still requires careful planning and that is the current interest in energy usage in buildings. "The marketplace is full of players who want a piece of this action," David says, "and full of potential customers who want to see an attractive payback for their investment. But this is a complex field," he continues. "It's not just about HVAC or controls. A holistic approach is needed. In fact, the customer demands a systems integrator approach. That's very different than being a controls contractor."

Such responsiveness to market demands and customer needs has been a constant factor at Encon and one component of their offering that is sure to carry over to their next-generation business model.