domingo, 4 de setembro de 2011

Wiring circuit boards for success - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

http://exhumator.com/00-130-00_esoteric-religious-spiritual-judaism-orthodox.html
Nick Barbin, co-founder, president and CEO, said that the company, whichg designs and makes the board s on asmall scale, is always searching for new customerse to replace those who fold or get acquired. “I woulc have to say we’ve had complete turnover on our customet list maybe two or three times he said. But that’x a game that Pleasanton-based Optimum Designn has been winning. From 2006 to the company’s revenue grew 138 percentr — to $13.14 million. And it is on pace to grow 20 percenty to 40 percentin 2009. The company has been profitable ever year since its foundingin 1991.
The company’se secret has been its willingnes to look for new Barbin and his partnerse at first kept the firmsmalpl — with about 8 to 15 employees. And they only did layourt and design ofthe boards, partnering with manufacturers to produce them. But at the urging of some of the company’sd customers, Optimum Design added the manufacturingb side in2001 — and that’s been a catalystg for growth. Today, the company has aboutf 50 employees, and it’s hiring this year, probablyt four to five people for the manufacturinhg side ofthe business. Another successful strategy has been choosingb theright customers.
It mostlg works with companies doing work for the military or makinvmedical instruments. Both of those have fairlhy inelastic demand, and both industries have traditionallyu contractedwith on-shore companies, rather than looking to India and Chin for cheaper deals. But Barbin says that the company’a ability to identify strong markets to chasde has helpedit grow. “In this industry you go as yourcustomerzs go,” he said. “There are a lot of companiees that are some of our competitors wheres their focus is aparticular industry. If they’r really focused on telecom, they’re sufferinb right now, but 10 years ago they were doingh great.
” The third factor that sets Optimujm Design apart is that it stays The company onlybuilds high-end boards that are extremely complicated, and they only fill orderxs that range from 100 to 10,000 boards. It’se that last factor that keep s it relatively safe from much bigger andcheaper competition, said Jim Walker, who covers the industru for . Walker said that almosgt all of the biggest printed circuit board companies are in Theonly U.S.
companies that survivde are ones that aremakinfg high-end or prototype boards that eventually get shipped off to overseas foundries to get Walker also said that the industry is ripe for consolidationj but that companies like Optimum Design are fairly insulatedr from the first wave of those acquisitions, because they’re too small to make an impacg on larger companies’ bottom lines. One of Optimumn Design’s customers, an aerospace company that asked not to be identifiee for thisarticle (Optimum signzs non-disclosure agreements with many of its makes equipment for the military and uses Optimumk Design for its printed circuit boards.
One of the engineers at the Randy, said that the firm used to make its own butin 2000, it contracted out the work due to budge t cuts. Randy said he rarely find problems with the product and that the compan is now starting to work more closelyy with Optimum Design since it has run three boardws through theentire process. “They admitted ... that they actually cost a little bit more than the guy next but we have experienced the high quality fromthem that’se kept us coming back,” he And Barbin says that Randy’s attitude is what makes the companuy successful.
There are a couple of hundred printed-circuit-board companies in the Bay Area, he But by offering the full process, and keepinfg quality high, they’ve been able to find “The designers we have here are he said. “There’s really no one out there that can competwe withour designers.”

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