Hammer Packaging Sets Sail for a Second Century in Business

That commitment to quality quickly becomes second nature to new hires, who—like all Hammer associates—are required to inspect and take responsibility for their piece of the workflow, based on the company's formal documented quality management system. "We don't have people in white coats whose job it is to monitor the quality of our employees' work," Hammer said. "We believe each employee owns his or her quality." For example, "While we have all sorts of automated vision inspection systems, our pressmen still are required to do the necessary checking at the press console. Our employees all have a high sense of urgency. Their motivating spirit has to be one of teamwork because there are so many handoffs along the way."