A precision milling plant in Troy, Michigan. 26 years and counting.

John Popa came to the United States from Romania in 1994 with a trade he'd already spent years learning: precision machining. The Carpathian mountains run through the region he came from. The name of the company is a nod to that.

He spent the next eight years running CNCs and progressive dies for other people's shops, including aircraft work and NASA-certified inspection programs that required certified tooling, documented setups, and zero room for error. He learned how serious manufacturing actually gets done.

In 2002, after a third round of union layoffs at the aircraft company he was working for, he decided that was the last time anyone would lay him off. He bought a CNC, rented an 1,100 sq ft bay, and started taking on work.

The first production project came in soon after — a hundreds-of-pieces run that another shop thought needed a horizontal mill. John built his own rotary table, ran it on a vertical, and shipped on time. The customer's exact words were less polite, but the point was the same: how is he making them this fast, and this clean?

That's still how the manufacturing plant runs today. Vertical machining centers and machinists working in step. Programs written carefully. Setups checked. Parts measured before they leave the building. The work has grown: more capacity, more capability, more customers across automotive, robotics, industrial, and consumer products. But the standard hasn't changed.

Twenty-six years in. Still on the floor. Still answering the phone.

Marcus Popa represents the second generation at Carpatians MFG. As Technical Floor Manager, he leads day-to-day operations on the plant floor, where he has built hands-on experience across machine build-out, setup, and process. That shop-floor knowledge is paired with concurrent academic training.