Catching up with…Fastrak Manufacturing’s Phil Guzman

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Fastrak Manufacturing is one of those companies that focus on solving problems, tough problems, problems that other companies cannot solve. Technically a contract manufacturer, Fastrak is much more than that, working with companies who have an engineering/manufacturing problem to solve, or with inventors trying to get a new product developed, manufactured and out to the market in a limited amount of time. Fastrak has a reputation for doing all that they can to make that problem disappear or to get that product built and to market.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Phil Guzman, founder and owner of Fastrak, to learn more about him and his company. Phil’s story is an interesting one.

Dan: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. First, tell me a little bit about your company.

Phil: Thank you Dan. This is a story I never get tired of telling. Ours is a classic Silicon Valley start-up story; believe it or not, we did start the company in a two-car garage. I actually got my start with the Ford Motor Company, in an assembly plant right here in Milpitas, where I learned all aspects of the assembly business, from material handling to receiving inspection. I have to say it was a valuable and classical education in assembly. After that I worked at a company called Versatec Inc., doing new product development. I am especially proud of my work on launching a then new line of multi-color electrostatic printer/plotters. Then, I left Versatec and started Fastrak.

Dan: Tell me about that. Why did you start Fastrak?

Phil: I wanted to do something that would use the skills and experience I had attained, but I wanted to do it my own way. I was ready to be out on my own. I wanted to have a small, more personal company that would be dedicated to providing quality services to the Santa Clara Valley. I wanted to work closely with customers, getting a good understanding of what their goals were and how we could help them to achieve them.

Dan: And how did you go about starting the company?

Phil: After leaving Versatec, I decided to semi-retire and try my hand at freelancing, finding repair and rework projects, you know, doing stuff that I liked to do. So I called people in my network and offered to do rework for them. It seems like in a matter of days I literally had more work than I could handle.

Dan: Can you give me some examples of the kind of work you had?

Phil: Sure, one of the first projects was trouble shooting the mother board for the Apple II, which got me started working with Apple on some board-level diagnostic work. I also did work for Sun Microsystems on some of their boards that needed rework. From there one project led to another to the point where I finally had to break down and start hiring people. The breakthrough project came when I was asked to work on some cable assemblies and the volume reached a point where I needed to hire some people.

Dan: I understand that besides the normal everyday business you also took on some project management assignments as well, right?

Phil: Yes, that’s right. Project management is my true passion, it is something that I am also pretty good at so after a while people came to me and asked me to help them with their new projects.

Dan: Was this mostly with new products?

Phil: Yes, exactly. I would have to say that my specialty, if you will, is product introduction. I like getting things done. I like to work with people who have good ideas but sometimes just do not have the know how to get their product fully developed enough to be manufactured and then to market. For example, I had the responsibility of introducing new products into manufacturing in Mexico for WebTV, a Microsoft company.

Dan: So brining this up to today, what exactly is the company focus right now, would you say?

Phil: Fastrak’s focus is to continue to expand the cable and harness business, and expand into other areas that can utilize the assembly services we provide. Fastrak is very good at providing quality products and identifying documentation errors and assisting the customer engineers to resolve them.

Dan: And what are some of the services you provide?

Phil:  We provide multiple of services including engineering support for cables, harnesses and sub-assemblies. Here is a list of what we can do: 

• Design and manufacture of control panels
• Commercial applications of bacteria-fighting silver
• Commercial solutions to automation and control applications
• Commercial liquid and gas integrated systems
• Advanced materials discovery for semiconductor manufacturers
• Recertification of semiconductor process equipment
• Portable clean energy charging equipment
• Oil quality sensor equipment
• Parts and subassemblies for semiconductor and aerospace

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