Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/713934
64 The PCB Design Magazine • August 2016 What I found out is that, regardless of how good I did as a designer, I didn't always control my destiny, so to speak. I concluded that rather than just going to the companies, it made more sense for me to create a good CAD environment and let the companies come to me, and that's worked well. It works well because I take care of the designers, and that shows, and the custom- ers like that. It's been the staple that gives our business a corporate signature and a corporate culture. Matties: Just for context, tell us a little bit about San Diego PCB, what the mission is, and what you guys do. Creeden: We have a mission statement, because that's what they say you're supposed to do when you have a corporation: have a corporate culture based on a mission statement. The mis- sion statement is, essentially, to have revision 1 work, and I want quality, and I want to do it the best I can on time. Those are the three things that most people say, "You can have two of the three." I'm sure you've heard that said. To the best degree we can, we're trying to do all three. There's nothing magical about it; it's just good work and determination to try to do that. Matties: First and foremost, are you a design bu- reau? Creeden: We're an engineering PCB layout de- sign service. It would make a long acronym, but PCB CAD layout. Essentially, we're a "virtual CAD layout department," because whether or not you're one cube away or you're a block down the road, or on the other side of the country, you're one Ethernet port away. So with Internet computing skills, online meetings, and shared desktops, we've truly been able to bill ourselves and service customers as a virtual CAD layout department. We're doing primarily PCB design layout services. We offer schematic drafting and design services as a, kind of like hands three and four, if you would. We're not billing ourselves as a full engineering service; we support engineer- ing departments. Matties: When we look at the engineering process, one of the things that we hear most often is that the systems designers don't bring in the circuit de- signers until it's time to throw the thing over the fence, and then you have these constraints to work in, or parameters to work within. But if they had brought you in earlier, life would be better for the end-product and everybody up and down the sup- ply chain. What's your view of that, and how does it work here? Creeden: There's no one answer for that. Matties: Is that typically the case, though? Creeden: It is for a segment of the industry. I'm not being vague here; it's just that the indus- try truly is compartmentalized in what I would say are three categories. First are the enterprise companies, which basically have their initial products, and then they have a whole group, or many different groups, within these big compa- nies that are doing the skunkworks projects— the test, the development, the R&D, and a lot of that work is farmed out. Often, it's very sched- ule-driven, and so it has tight time constraints. Then there are a lot of mid-level companies that have chosen not to have their own CAD group, and then there are the startups that, again, do not have a CAD department. Matties: Are groups two and three really the ones that come to you most often? Creeden: No, we're doing work for Intel, HP, Qualcomm, Tesla, 3M—those are name-drop- ping companies, so here I am name-dropping— but to me, every customer has to have the same MIKE CREEDEN: CARE AND TRAINING OF YOUR DESIGNERS " There's nothing magical about it; it's just good work and determination to try to do that. "