Krista Hanamann

Krista Hanamann joined ILLING as an HR Generalist in 2019, became HR & Safety Manager in 2021, and stepped into the Director of Operations role in January 2025. Today she oversees production, warehouse, HR, and safety across four locations and a team of more than 40, a scope that reflects how she thinks about the work: people and operations aren’t separate disciplines, they’re the same job.

At ILLING, safety comes first: ahead of quality, delivery, and cost, in that order. In seven-plus years, Krista has built and strengthened the systems that make that priority real, from safety programs that reach every location and every language to updated quality protocols, a sustained 5S program, standardized SOPs, and KPI frameworks that hold teams accountable without micromanaging them.

She holds a degree in Human Resources and International Business from the University of Minnesota and spent nearly three years working in Spain, an experience that left her with a calmer hand for a never-ending to-do list. A potter, traveler, hiker, and gardener, she lives in the greater Milwaukee area with her partner and their dog, volunteers on the HR committee at a local food pantry, and walks dogs for the Wisconsin Humane Society.

Reliable labor, solved from the freeway. For years, temporary-staff no-shows and early departures derailed whole production days: machines idle, supervisors scrambling, schedules slipping, and the staffing agencies weren’t improving. Krista spotted a staffing agency’s van on her commute and set up a meeting. The differentiator: this partner transports employees to and from every shift at no charge above a minimum headcount, at comparable rates. ILLING switched staffing partners, and supervisors stopped starting each morning guessing at capacity. If someone won’t make it, the agency knows before the shift starts.

Safety training in the right language. ILLING’s Georgia location and many temporary staff speak primarily Spanish, and Krista found employees sitting through trainings without retaining much, or losing context and time through real-time translation. She sourced a local translator to convert the materials into written and recorded Spanish. Comprehension went up. It just took looking at the problem from the employee’s position rather than the employer’s.

Tooling in days, not weeks. Decoration machines need custom tooling sized to each container, and traditional tooling can take five to six weeks, a real barrier for smaller runs and tighter timelines. Krista led ILLING’s evaluation of 3D printing, running the vendor meetings and making the equipment recommendation with her team, then coordinated the training to get everyone operational. In-house tooling now turns around in a fraction of the traditional lead time, opening ILLING’s services to customers who couldn’t justify the old wait.