Customers: GE Energy
New workflow enables faster, higher-quality translation of 5900 pages of technical documentation
The Client
GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, providing a broad array of solutions for traditional thermal fuel plants as well as those driven by nuclear power and renewable resources. Its sophisticated power generation facilities and services deliver reliable and efficient energy to customers around the world.
The Challenge
For each unit in its global portfolio of power plants, GE must prepare extensive site-specific technical documentation in the local language.
For the project in question, GE needed to rapidly localize a very large number of technical manuals to meet aggressive schedule requirements. Unfortunately, a high volume of documents and a short completion window were only part of the problem. The source files were also of very low quality, comprising editable and scanned PDFs, large Word files and other hard-to-manage formats. Preparing this material for translation would involve extracting and validating source texts from the files provided by the client. In addition, the files originated from diverse internal and external sources and lacked any standard style, terminology or naming conventions.
Reducing the duration and cost of translating such a heterogeneous mix of information would require an efficient process tailored to the state of the source documentation.
- Key hurdles for this client included:
- Huge document volumes.
- Short deadlines.
- Poor-quality, often uneditable source files.
- Diverse document sources, naming conventions and formats.
- Typical Process
- Translation
- Proofreading
- Formatting
- Final QA
- Sign-off & Delivery
- Tek Tailored Process
- File Preparation & Validation
- Translation
- LQC Quality Assurance
- Proofreading
- Formatting
- Final QA
- Sign-off & Delivery
The Automated File Preparation phase allows for fast, reliable extraction of texts for translation as well as the use of translation memory technology. Automated Quality Assurance offers an efficient solution to carry out glossary adherence checks, grammar checks and much more to improve final quality.
- Plus
- Technically qualified teams of translation and DTP specialists ensure familiarity with GE’s products and specific requirements.
- Proactive Information sharing.
- Results
- Use of translation memory technology.
- Quality assurance phase more efficient and reliable.
- Client-specific knowledge maximized within localization team. Open lines of communication help avoid misunderstandings and delays.
- Accelerated throughputs add flexibility to schedule.
GE Energy selected Tek to help identify and implement a more efficient way to localize this challenging material and streamline its processes going forward. After evaluating alternatives, Tek and the GE team elected a workflow that used optical character recognition technology to extract text from PDF files and save it in .doc format. The .doc files were then validated against the English source. Faster preparation enabled subsequent DTP processes to proceed smoothly and efficiently.
To improve consistency, Tek also recommended that the client compile and translate glossaries. Tek has since localized these glossaries into seven languages, incorporating them into Tek's Language Quality Checker for use by all GEqualified translators.
Language Quality Checker also enhances proofreading, because LQC can be populated with client-specific glossaries and non-translatable terms as well as language-specific spelling and grammar checks.
Thanks to these solutions and stellar project management, the client's tight deadlines were met, with many document batches delivered before their scheduled due dates.
Typical Results
Completion - 125 Days
- Average throughputs:
- 47 pages per day
- 11,000 words per day
Completion - 56 Days
- Average throughputs:
- 105 pages per day
- 24,000 words per day
With this new workflow in place, GE was able to speed and streamline translation processes and improve consistency within its vast library of documentation. Large volumes of information could now be translated and formatted faster, and with higher quality.
