[Case Study: 15% Reduction in Translation Costs] Medical Device User Manual

When it comes to machine translation, you might have the image of 'cheap and poor quality', but that is a thing of the past.

With the advancement of machine translation technology, it is now possible to reduce translation costs while maintaining a quality level equivalent to human translation by building an optimal process tailored to the translation subject..

We received an inquiry from the person in charge of the instruction manual at a medical device manufacturer in the Tokai region at the end of 2013.

Translation of approximately 1.1 million words per year from English to multiple languages (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese) for user manuals,

- Want to reduce translation costs
・I want to shorten the time required for the release of the instruction manual

For this reason, we received an inquiry stating, "We would like to consider the introduction of machine translation".
However, there was also a request that "we do not want to compromise on translation quality".
Therefore, Human Science proposed the following two points for the introduction of machine translation:

①Pre-implementation Quality Assessment (Conducting quality comparison using two engines)

Calculated the comparison of translation quality and cost reduction rate using two candidate statistical engines.
We propose engines with good quality and higher expected cost reductions,
and the customer has decided to adopt the engine.

(*) Quality that can be used at a practical level in all languages.

Proposing a review process by native translators

Machine Translation Processing + Post-Editing in addition to the usual process,
by conducting a review by a translator, we achieve a translation quality that is "accurate and easy to understand," comparable to human translation.

We propose a work process of "Post-editing + Review" that maintains the same quality as human translation while also providing cost benefits.

(*) We propose a workflow that maintains the same quality as human translation while reducing costs.

The quality of the trial translation conducted in processes ① and ② was evaluated by our clients' local branches in each country.
We received feedback that there were "no issues with quality" in all languages.
As a result, machine translation was implemented in actual translation projects in 2014.

Successfully reduced translation costs from English to multiple languages by 15%.

As of 2015, when the translation of user manuals is on track,
we are also conducting trials of machine translation for service manuals that require quick turnaround.

As demonstrated in the case introduced today, it is possible to achieve both quality maintenance and cost reduction with the introduction of machine translation.

Please feel free to contact us.

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