Rolling the Industry Forward: SAMCO Unites People Power with Technology

A Brief History 

In the ’70s, roll forming was the up and coming industry and Joe Repovs, a family man with a wife and a baby, had a dream: to start a roll-forming shop of his own. He had learned from Ernie Bodnar, who was considered the king of roll forming in Toronto. Joe had set the ball in motion, but getting a company started from scratch was not that easy. So, he began looking for a second job. It was during an interview with a tube forming company, Joe realized that his heart wasn’t in doing a job. He needed to focus on his own project; that’s where his true passion lay. Since the day he made that decision, Joe never looked back.

In September of 1972, the company had a small office in Toronto. Tooling was done in-house, and roll forming and other production was out of house. The company’s first big order was to manufacture a machine that produced steel studs for a commercial building. Then, an order for an equipment to manufacture T-Bars for the construction of schools and offices came in, and the company was off and running. By 1981, Joe was joined by two partners, Karl Bari and Jim Zsarnai, an engineer and plant manager. The team brought new innovation to the company. They designed their own machines which enabled SAMCO Machinery to stand out in the marketplace. They upgraded their headquarters for greater space throughout the ’80s, adding more product offerings to their equipment offerings, including air presses and uncoilers.

By the ’90s, the company was making custom machines, and they broke into several other industries including, but not limited to, automotive, shelving and racking, metal decking, metal roofs, purlins, garage doors, and they continued to develop a following in the steel framing industry. At that time, the machinery required working in one size at a time. Further, it could take a full day to change from one size to another. SAMCO took that on as a challenge, and by the mid-’90s their studmaker was able to change sizes in minutes. 

In the 2000s the software transition began. The company adopted an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System for easy project information access, and COPRA, engineering software for tooling design that points out the structural stresses and allows corrections to be make online. The next step moved customer service forward with a project manager process. Every project is assigned a dedicated engineer and milestones to be attained. This system helps them keep the customer apprised of progress. 

Continuous Improvement and Marketing

In 1997, Bob Repovs, the current President and CEO joined the company full time. One of the first things he did was ensure the proper processes were in place to get the company ISO 9001 certified in 1998, making them the first in their industry to achieve this certification.

In 1998, Lisa Repovs was named marketing director. She understood the importance of attending trade shows to build relationships with their customers and to showcase their product capabilities. While Lisa has moved on, the company still attends the shows regularly. 

People Power

SAMCO Machinery embraces diversity. One of the rather unusual things about the company is the flag display on the wall. It includes over 40 different flags representing the nationalities that make up their workforce. Three things they all have in common: they are all, SAMCO employees, and they are passionate about their work and helping their customers.

“The thing about passionate people,” says Bob Repovs, “is that they will disagree sometimes. Only passionate people rock the boat, and often through listening to each other’s point of view, the best ideas are discovered.”

Everything SAMCO does is customer-centric. They maintain that focus by asking themselves if they are doing what the customer asked for. “If not, they are wasting the customer’s time,” he added. 

The Labor Challenge

Finding people can be a challenge for SAMCO, just as it is for most other companies. The best advice Bob can give is when talking to prospective employees, ask them what they want from their career. You can find out how passionate people are when you get them to talk about their work.

The company sees that many people who may have an aptitude never really consider trade school as an option to get their career rolling, so they partner with schools, inviting students to explore roll forming and CNC tooling at presentations and open houses. They believe that this type of exposure can help expand the workforce.

What is more challenging, is keeping good people. They have found that the key is in giving employees the freedom to accept responsibility. When they do that, a true sense of pride in the final product is engendered; a person can know that a project was enhanced by their participation. This kind of mindset keeps work interesting and rewarding. The company has many long-term employees, like Jaswinder Bhatti who has been with the company for 38 years! 

Industry Trends

The current trend in the industry is great speed in production; everyone wants a machine that goes faster. Even material handling, which was just an afterthought pre-COVID, is now part of the conversation around fast turnarounds. Rollformers want automated systems that will bundle and prepare big jobs for shipment much faster than humans could ever hope to. One of the challenges the need for speed engenders is helping customers to make the most of the space they have, since automation systems can require a lot of room.

The steel framing industry is booming, and SAMCO believes that it is bringing a lot of opportunity for manufacturers and suppliers of steel framing components.

Further, various quality levels of metal may be used for a roll-forming company’s customers based on their project’s budget constraints, so you have to investigate what the rollformer really needs from their machines.

Rolling Into the Future

“In the roll-forming industry, speed is the word,” Bob notes. “Speed and better material handling are needed because the labor challenges aren’t going away. We need to innovate to make machines more efficient.”

The company is looking at different markets for expansion. There are many different types of roll forming they could explore, whether that’s specific types of panels for decks, making them customizable, or other opportunities. Bob believes that it’s nice to make these tools accessible to small customers.

Bob Repovs is on board with driving improvements: “We will continue to improve on SEM (search engine marketing), SEO (search engine optimization), online videos, and every marketing tool at our disposal to introduce ourselves into companies and industries that may never have heard of SAMCO before — to help them achieve their goals.”

Bob believes that as a global innovator in roll-forming industry, SAMCO Machinery has only begun to tap into its full potential. “We are poised for significant growth alongside both new and existing customers and are well-equipped to expand our expertise across multiple industries. Yet, at its core, SAMCO Machinery will always prioritize our customers’ needs as the most important KPI.” RF