When it comes to machine translation, many have an impression of it being cheap but low quality, but that is no longer accurate. As in-depth development of machine translation technology has continued, some specific content (primarily technical content with simple language), the proper translation process and quality assurance specifications can reduce translation costs while maintaining the same level of translation quality.

Around 2018, the person in charge of a manual for a CNC machine tool sales company in Shanghai came to us for advice. They wanted to translate over 2 million Japanese characters into Chinese. After discussing the project, the customer had the following requirements:

Reduced cost

Shortened turnaround

We recommended a machine translation + post-editing solution to them, which came about after thoroughly analyzing the client’s documents. They included machine manuals for tools, maintenance, parameters, etc. The language was relatively simple, and included a significant portion of repetitions. These characteristics meant it was uniquely suited for machine translation. To ensure the quality was no different than a translator’s final product, professional translators in t the target language edited the document once machine translation was completed.

We created a tailored workflow to meet the client’s needs and completed the task before the agreed upon deadline, reducing the overall translation costs by nearly 20%. The client confirmed in their evaluation results that “no quality problems exist.”

If your translation needs are similar to us, please contact us.