BACKGROUND
Siemens AG is the world’s largest electronics and electrical engineering company, with its principal activities being in the fields of industry, energy, transportation and healthcare. It is organized into five main divisions: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities, and Siemens Financial Services (SFS). EQHO Communications regularly completes complex localization projects for multinational conglomerates. One such project for Siemens Thailand involved translating and type-setting 1 million words of operator and maintenance manuals from English into Thai for a new train service that runs from central Bangkok to the Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Due to our client’s scheduled training dates, the project had to be completed in a restricted timeframe .
CHALLENGES
- Siemens required a large amount of highly technical content in a very short time frame
- It was vital to achieve consistency in terminology and style throughout, in order to maintain clear understanding for the ARL engineers
- The project was time-critical – without training materials, the ARL could not be launched
- Strict budgets meant we had to make the most from translation technology and maximize content recycling
SOLUTIONS
- It was determined that the translation teams would be required to produce in excess of 50,000 words per day in order to complete this large scale project on time, which meant using a large team of linguists in combination with automated translation technology
- In order to maintain consistency of terminology use and style throughout each of the translators and editors work, EQHO created multi-lingual style guides and a comprehensive glossary of technical terms which were distributed amongst the linguistic teams
RESULTS
EQHO’s centralized production model gave the client a turnkey solution, from consultancy through to the final execution. Siemens benefited from EQHO’s solutions in the following distinct ways:
- Personalized approach –Face to face kick-off meetings were conducted at the Siemens project office in Bangkok
- Attention to detail – With careful preparation and approval of multi-lingual style guides and terminology glossaries, in addition to translation teams working on shared translation memory (TM) networks, the translation quality and consistency were accurately maintained
- Speed and Cost – The translation was completed within 20 working days and delivered well within the time frame, thereby exceeding the client’s expectations
- Savings – By working on shared TM networks, and by using automated translation technology, we were also able to provide progressive savings as we navigated through the project
- Sensible – Desktop publishing and proofreading were both carried out in-house further reducing logistical challenges, and ensuring that the project was completed and delivered on time and within budget
