Global manufacturing companies face unique communication challenges due to the industry’s technical nature, stringent yet varying regulations, and complex global supply chains. Multiple countries, cultures, and languages are involved in the mix.
If you need manufacturing translation services, several factors should be considered during your projects and while creating your multilingual content strategy.
What is Manufacturing Translation?
Manufacturing translation is a language services segment of the translation industry that supports the multilingual communication exchange of manufacturing companies. Companies that fall under the manufacturing umbrella encompass many industries, are dispersed worldwide, and have a considerable need for multilingual translation services.
The manufacturing industry plays a vital role in global economics. It is responsible for many jobs, innovations, and producing essential goods for businesses and consumers.
Today, the manufacturing industry is more global than ever; sourcing products from one country or multiple, shipping them to a processing plant, producing the goods, and selling to consumers worldwide – there are potential language barriers at every stage.
Common documents for manufacturing translation services:
- Internal manufacturing processes
- HR documents
- Design schematics
- Employee training materials
- Quality assurance documents
- Product descriptions
- Safety training warnings
- User manuals
- Marketing materials
- Contract translation
Challenges of Manufacturing Translation Services
Translation of Technical Terminology
The manufacturing industry uses complex, technical, industry-specific terms. These terms are used in daily conversation, business communications, instruction manuals, and more within manufacturing companies.
Often, these terms aren’t used outside of the manufacturing sector or mean something different in another context. A manufacturing translator must be well-versed in this jargon to step in and provide an accurate translation. These aren’t terms people can research and pick up—you need a deep knowledge of the manufacturing sector and your company’s content and products.
A business also needs consistency across its translated content. For example, to ensure that machines are used properly, a company must issue the same warning in the Japanese translations as in French and English. Precision is paramount to overcoming language barriers in manufacturing translation. These documents must be completely accurate to the source text to prevent errors compromising worker safety, usability, or product quality.
Translation quality matters – especially regarding product labels and safety warnings. Much of the equipment used in the manufacturing sector is heavy machinery that could easily harm a user (or a consumer) if not correctly operated. These warnings and safety instructions must be translated well to ensure users understand how to utilize them properly. Inaccurate or poorly translated labels result in user confusion, which increases the risk of accidents.
Manufacturing companies must navigate a complex web of supply chains, and effective communication is essential to keeping timelines on track and products moving forward. A global supply chain allows you to take advantage of the best the world offers, but you must be able to communicate with your suppliers, distributors, and partners.
If you offer technical support, you must be sure that all your content goes through a process of high-quality manufacturing translations. Customers calling in may have complex, specific questions about certain machine parts or unusual errors, and your customer service has to be able to answer them. Providing technical support in multiple languages requires well-trained staff and well-translated technical documents. In some cases, even over-the-phone interpretation for your help lines.
If your technical documents are updated regularly, you must also plan for translation updates. You don’t want an updated user manual in one country and an outdated translated version in another. Every new machine or new version requires document improvement; if this is done frequently, you may have a significant amount of multilingual translation work to manage, and for that, you need to work with a translation company that can facilitate your workflow and ensure consistency with specialized technology.
This necessitates working with a professional translation services partner who understands the manufacturing sector. Subject matter expertise in a translator makes the entire translation process move smoothly for you.
Regulatory Compliance & Legal Documentation
Manufacturers must comply with local, state, federal, and international regulations. Compliance requires documentation and paperwork; if you’re dealing with multiple government entities, you need it to be right the first time. Translating compliance documents (which are legal documents) and ensuring that the translation aligns with local regulatory requirements is no small task.
Differences in employment regulations also exist, including communication with a multilingual workforce. Your business must adhere to multiple labor laws, which may affect employee communications, pay transparency, internal HR policies, etc.
Compliance documents aren’t the only legal documents that manufacturers have to navigate. If you have a patent or trademark on a product, you may also need to translate those. Translating intellectual property documents accurately is crucial for legal protection in multiple countries.
Environmental and safety regulations must also be considered, and your business may require multilingual translation. Ecological safety and compliance standards vary by region and country, but ignorance is no excuse for being found out of compliance. Manufacturing businesses must ensure these documents are translated accurately to reflect local regulations.
Additionally, there are quality control documents to consider for multilingual document translation. While these documents, such as inspection reports and audits, are not necessarily legal documents, they are sensitive information. Quality control documents must be updated and translated accurately for local and executive leadership review.
All the documents need professional manufacturing translation, which must be done promptly to maintain efficient operations, regardless of the volume of documents.
Benefits of Professional Manufacturing Translation Services
Cultural Sensitivity
Utilizing translation services for everything from internal memos to marketing materials ensures that your messaging is always accurate and culturally appropriate. Translation errors can easily lead to cultural miscommunications, so utilizing a professional translation firm can help ensure your message resonates with your target audience. Translation services can also assist in adapting products, services, and messaging to local preferences, ensuring your solution can solve their unique problem.
Global Markets Expansion
Manufacturing translations enable a manufacturing company to expand its business and enter new markets worldwide by facilitating translated technical documentation and legal, marketing materials, and product information in the target language. You don’t have to speak the language to enter a new country in the manufacturing industry when you have a partner in language services.
Efficient Operations
Operating a business or participating in the supply chain across multiple countries means a single communication hiccup can have a significant ripple effect. Effective communication is vital for conducting business in global markets. Flawlessly translated communications and live interpretations at meetings will streamline interactions with suppliers, distributors, and partners, minimizing misunderstandings and delays that affect your bottom line.
Regulation Compliance
Manufacturing regulations, safety standards, and labor laws differ in each country. With translation services, your business can ensure that internal and external documents, labels, and safety information are accurate and meet regulatory requirements. Ignorance is no excuse for being out of compliance, and the fines for doing so are far more significant than any translation expense.
Labor Communications
Working with a multilingual workforce requires support from a translation services company to communicate effectively. Even if you’re working within a single country, there are often varying linguistic demographics—consider how many people in the USA speak Spanish as their first language (around 30 million). Translating your content into Spanish, including your onboarding documents, HR processes, employee handbook, internal memos, and safety protocols, ensures your message is understood and followed if you have Spanish-speaking employees who need to be trained and kept informed.
Effective Marketing
Successful marketing is based on provoking the right emotions in your target audience at the right time- but properly producing these emotions can be tricky. Going beyond translation to localizing your marketing materials (including website, social media, advertisements, and brochures) allows you to increase brand visibility by promoting to an international audience. Marketing translation errors can set a company up for mockery and a negative image with their clients, while effective marketing gives you a competitive market penetration advantage.
Legal Protections
From registering your company name in a new country to setting up patents, intellectual property protections, and quality assurance processes, manufacturing translation services are essential for companies dealing with legal documents. Accuracy is paramount in safety warnings, user manuals, operating instructions, and other documents in industrial manufacturing.
Enhanced Customer Support
If your operations are global, your customer service must be multilingual. Whether you offer over-the-phone support, live chats, or email messages, communicating in your customer’s language goes a long way towards helping address problems, provide technical support, and gain customer loyalty.
What Industries are in Manufacturing?
Manufacturing translation is technical and highly specified. As well as diverse for all the areas that touches.
Manufacturing is not one “industry”, it is an economic sector comprising many industries. Manufacturing implicates processing and refining raw materials, like wood, native minerals, and food, into finished products, such as furniture, metal goods, and processed foods.
The manufacturing industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. Between 2023 and 2028, the fastest-growing US industrial manufacturing segments by revenue will be solar power equipment (compound annual growth rate of 25.5%), 3D printers (24.1%), drones (24.1%), and hybrid and electric vehicles (22%), according to a forecast by research firm IBISWorld. This is all due to the continued rise of smart industries.
The industries listed below represent a diverse range of manufacturing activities, touching nearly every business, industry, and consumer.
- Automotive Manufacturing. The production of personal and commercial automobiles includes cars, trucks, motorcycles, diesel vehicles, and heavy-weight trucks and all their internal components. Multilingual Automotive translation services are a common request in our translation company
- Transportation manufacturing. The production of vehicles other than cars, including the components of trains, ships, boats, subways, and other transportation methods.
- Heavy Machinery and Equipment. These manufacturers make industrial machinery and equipment, including construction and large machines used for production within several industries, including food production, agriculture, oil and gas, and solar energy.
- Electronics. Manufacturers of electronic devices and their components, including semiconductors, chips, consumer electronics, and household/commercial electrical components.
- Chemical Manufacturing. They involve the production of various chemicals, from household spray chemicals to petrochemicals, agrochemicals, and gases. It can also encompass petroleum refining and the processing of crude oil.
- Mining and Mineral Processing. Heavy metals, precious minerals, and other geological resources are extracted and processed.
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices. Production of pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, mobility aids, glasses, hearing aids, and other healthcare-related products. Translation services for the healthcare sector is a priority for safety and access to content in this field.
- Food and Beverage Manufacturing. From canned goods to bottled beer, this industry encompasses the production of edible goods, including processing, cooking, packaging, and distribution.
- Metals Manufacturing. Manufacturing metal and fabricated metal products, such as steel, aluminum, titanium, and parts used in machines and other industries.
- Plastics and Rubber. Production of various plastic and rubber parts for packaging, consumer goods, machine parts, and household products.
- Wood Manufacturing. Wood and wooden products are manufactured to create household furniture, cabinetry, flooring, siding, and other wood products.
- Construction and Building Materials. Construction parts include cement, bricks, glass, insulation, and other building materials.
- Paper and printing. Produces paper products, printing, publishing, and packaging materials.
- Renewable Energy. Production of equipment for and components of energy generation from solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal wells, and more.
- Consumer packaged goods. Production of a wide range of consumer-facing products, including toys, appliances, decor, and other household goods.
The list is vast, so the need for multilingual content to support global manufacturing companies is also huge and diverse.
Technical Translation Services for Manufacturing
Manufacturing translation is no small task, and translation quality matters. It starts at the design stage for a new product or when you decide to expand your business. If you want to ensure a high-quality customer experience across the board, translating documents can help your customers get the most out of your communications and content. It can also decrease your legal liability, ensure legal intellectual property protection, and ultimately support the journey to increase your profits.
Moving through the translation processes can be tricky for a busy business company; however, with the appropriate professional translation agency and a diverse, multilingual team on your side, you’ll get high-quality manufacturing translations tailored for specific international markets with no additional workload to your team.
If you require high-quality manufacturing translation services from a reliable and knowledgeable professional translation company, you need expert translators at JR Language. Our team has been helping manufacturing businesses around the world break into new markets and reach new audiences for decades. Contact our team for a free quote to get the process started today.
