In the manufacturing and engineering industries, there are more opportunities than ever before to collaborate internationally. Your best chance of success is by having the global capabilities to bring the best leaders, technicians, engineers, project managers, administrative staff, and all the other people who go into developing and creating products together, working towards one goal.
But we know this is easier said than done. Add to that business partners, financiers and suppliers, who may be in several different countries, and the need for everyone to be on the same page is critical for profitability.
As a Language Services Provider (LSP), we are constantly working with our clients in manufacturing and engineering to accurately translate documentation so that everyone won’t just be on the same page but the same sentence.
Here’s a list of the types of documents that we frequently encounter when translating for our clients in the industry.
These need to be translated completely and accurately. When you’re dealing with details like dimensions, designs, materials, and other criteria directly linked to a product’s performance, there is no room for individual interpretation.
Linguists, who are also subject matter experts in the field, need to be the translators, so these critical documents are translated in line with both the language and the industry.
These help people understand how to use your product and how to keep it performing safely and at its best. They’re a practical document, and often quite dry. For users, having them in their native language will help them get a better understanding of how to operate the product safely and get the most out of it.
CAD drawings are more than just visual representations; they are the blueprints for your product. Design considerations are crucial, including the need for additional space.
This is important for translations that may be longer, such as Spanish text which is typically 20-30% longer than English. Furthermore, the direction of reading varies in different languages.
For instance, translations into Hebrew, Arabic, or Persian read right to left. In some dialects of Mongolian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, the text reads from top to bottom.
The basis of your intellectual property and how you look to protect your design and technical advantage in the marketplace. Patent translation and filing requirements can vary widely from country to country. They need to be translated into the official language of country they’re being filed in, even if that’s not the most widely used language in the country.
For example, English is the official language of a several African nations, such as Zambia, Burundi, Kenya, Eritrea, Lethoso, Namibia, Rwanda and Liberia, yet in all these countries less than 20% of the population are native English speakers.
Projects don’t move forward in a technical setting without proper reporting. Project reports are written by people with knowledge of being on the front line of the area being reported on.
They’re vital to minimizing errors and fostering transparent communication between everyone involved.
Technical, managerial, financial and production progress and issues need to be translated properly for all parties to ensure inter-departmental alignment.
Keeping financial performance clear to investors, partners, shareholders and government officials is part of any business’s core responsibility.
There are also regulatory and standards bodies that need to have oversight into how manufacturing and engineering companies are operating.
Some are international, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and others vary from country to country. All require accurate reporting and accurate translations.
Nothing happens without having the right people trained the way that you need them to be. In manufacturing and engineering, training can range from developing skills around a specific machine for someone with low literacy, to educating an academic with multiple PHDs on new systems or software.
That’s quite a range. Making sure your training material translations are fit for purpose, for the correct person, is crucial.
Nothing moves forward in business without a contract or legal agreement of some form. Often wordy, always necessary, contracts are best translated by linguists familiar with the industry and the legal profession.
Without accurate translations, your business could be at risk of operating without valid agreements, or even illegally, and subject to significant financial or operational penalties.
Localization is translation taken to the next level. It means intimately understanding the people who are going to absorb your documentation and the nuances are that will increase engagement with them.
This goes beyond just knowing your audience is in Argentina and they speak Spanish. It means knowing that your audience are all industrial workers for your new manufacturing plant in Rio Cuarto, who are conservative Roman Catholics with limited literacy that speak Córdoban Spanish.
Translate always, but wherever budget and resources allow, localize.
When your aim is to bring the best people together to create the best product, translation needs to work for you so that languages and borders aren’t a barrier.
The list here is not an exhaustive one, but just the key translation considerations for your reference as you move forward with new partnerships and head into new markets.
If you’ve got translation requirements that you need help with, we’d love to sit down and talk with you about it.
Consultations are free and there’s no obligation.
With LinguaLinx, you won't ever have to worry about your message getting lost as it’s translated. You know you're in good hands as we’re ISO 17100 and ISO 9001 compliant, have over twenty years of professional translation experience, and have earned the trust of organizations around the world.