In an interview with Shanghai Daily on a humid mid-June workday, Fei Caiming walked in a sturdy manner and spoke quickly with a Shanghai dialect. He blurted out technical terms from time to time and the name of a certain milk tank in the pre-processing manufacturing line at the No. 4 Dairy Factory in the city's southwestern Fengxian District, an affiliate of local dairy firm Bright Dairy. He even recalled his first encounter with the Communist Party of China more than 30 years ago. At that time, he was an officer cadet in a ground force division in neighboring Zhejiang Province. The head of the political work department saw his potential to be a good soldier through his dedication to training and aspirations to achieve the best in everyday routines. He delivered outstanding performances in military training exercises such as cross-country marathon races and gymnastics at a time when it was very rare for a new cadet to join the Party. "It was on January 5, 1990 when I officially became a Party member," he said. Three months later, he retired from the army, returned to Shanghai and began working at a Bright Dairy's warehouse. Two years after that, he was transferred to the dairy plant's cleaning and disinfection department. His mission has been clear ever since: wholeheartedly serve the public interest. Fei was almost at a total loss the first time he came in close contact with all the milk tanks, vessels and pipes in the factory. He repeatedly walked around each milk tank and the surrounding auxiliary facilities, using the most tedious but simplest method to familiarize himself with his new work environment. After several months, he managed to get his head around all the tanks and tubes on the manufacturing site, and has stuck to the work for the past 30 years. "I signed up for the job, so I had to motivate myself to perform well and try every means to learn about even the tiniest component of the cleansing tubes and milk tanks," he said. The "clean-in-place" procedures involve automated systems used to clean the interior surfaces of food and beverage processing facilities without disassembling the manufacturing lines. The complete cleansing process consists of using water to wash the tanks and storage filters, then using either acidic or alkaline detergents to run through the same process again before using clean water a final time. When the full cleansing process is complete, cleansing and disinfection workers test the acidity or basicity level of the water flowing out of the tank to ensure there's no leftover detergents, which concludes the quality assessment procedures. They also take turns carrying out random checks on bacteria to make sure dairy products are safe and sound from the factory gate. "Clean in place" at a food factory is the most crucial step, as raw milk must be collected and transferred from the ranch and put in clean tanks before being processed to be made into packaged milk drinks, said Fei. His work routine involves setting up the cleaning process on a computer interface, usually about half an hour for each tank. He then goes to the vicinity of these tanks and pipes to ensure the cleansing process is in the right order. "I have to hold myself to the highest standards since I am a Party member," he said. "I have to dedicate more effort to everyday work and strive for higher standards than any ordinary worker would." There's no way to finish off the job by pretending to have a full picture of all the production process and quality standards, so he tried his best to memorize how different tanks and pipes are connected and how the cleansing process runs. "Before the cleansing process begins, I have to make sure the milk tank is not in use," he said while walking into the production area in his sanitary suits. Sticking to the work manual and guidebook is one thing, but knowing the work well enough to pinpoint where improvements could be made is another. Fei has made small adjustments to the cleansing and disinfection procedure, and constantly reminds himself to find wherever the process could be streamlined and efficiency improved. For example, he once put on an additional valve that links one of the raw milk tanks with another milk processing tank so the cleaning process could cover both tanks at the same time to save energy and time. He was also the first to suggest using recycled water for the initial washing. The idea was used at other production lines and managed to save the factor nearly 100 tons of water, a cost saving of 182,000 yuan. In the early 1990s, all cleansing and disinfection tubes had to be manually connected to the milk tanks. Later, remote computer control panels were used to connect them. "I have to make sure there's a suitable flow of water or detergents, so there's neither a shortage of disinfectants nor waste of water," he said. Even with computer alarm systems, he always keeps a sharp eye on everything happening on the production lines. "I am always on alert and sometimes have to walk more than 10 kilometers around the facilities in one shift," he said. Bright Dairy's fresh milk expanded beyond the regional market in early 2017, meaning production capacity at the No.4 Dairy Factory had to be expanded. All Bright Dairy's factories in eastern China also upgraded their quality assessment and production monitoring systems at around the same time. That in turn required a more dedicated cleansing process, as factory lines come to a grinding halt if the milk-tank cleaning process isn't carried out properly. Normally, cleaning and disinfection employees work from 6am to 6pm, take a day off and work the following day from 6pm to 6am. Fei has stuck to this work routine for 30 years. As new staff join the cleansing and disinfection department, Fei coaches them one by one. So far, he has trained about a dozen employees. "Each has different levels of competency when it comes to learning new techniques, so I have to suit their tempers and habits, always stay patient and make sure they can become an eligible cleaning and disinfection employee," he said. "I wouldn't be able to train my apprentices if I didn't benchmark with the highest standards and always aspire to perform at the highest level," he added. Fei remembers several years ago when one of his apprentices regularly called from the factory when something went wrong with the cleansing process – sometimes in the middle of the night. "I can identify where the problem is just by listening to the description of abnormal sounds at a certain place in one of the stainless pipes or valves, and then give guidance on how to resolve the system glitch," he said. He said the most fulfilling moment is ruling out operation irregularities without having to call the engineers or mechanics. "I always take pleasure in making sure there's no delay in the production schedule, and all the key metrics for quality assessment are met," he said.