In 2015, the annual revenue of the German automotive and supplier industry was nearly half a trillion euros. Numerous international markets and diversified production chains have incorporated companies in this industry into a global system of production and sales locations. This has led to a massive number of documents – both technical and marketing-related – that frequently require translation. In the following, our aim is to familiarise you with the challenges that arise when translating texts in the automotive field. We will describe the solutions tolingo offers for your translation projects; these help us take advantage of system integration options, improve processes, define and ensure quality standards and cut costs.
Besides the major automobile manufacturers, there is a plethora of companies that only produce individual products for the entire production chain. These may be plant manufacturers or tool producers, in addition to the producers of individual parts who are responsible for up to 70% of all components in a newly built vehicle.
Not every translator is capable of translating for the automotive industry. Specialist translators acquire an understanding of the technical details and processes through corresponding professional training and years of experience with texts from the automotive sector. Choosing a specialist translator who has undergone training specifically in this field is therefore absolutely crucial for assuring the quality of these translations.
Translating complex production processes or highly detailed machine components requires a sound overall understanding of the technical context. However, individual terms for product lists or catalogues must frequently be translated with little or even no context at all. When this is the case, it is all the more essential for the translator to understand the purposes of the individual elements and parts in order to eliminate the possibility of mixing them up.
Most often, texts for the automotive and supplier industry that need to be prepared and translated accordingly for international partners come from three areas.
Companies need contractual documents for both the production and sales of their products; these safeguard their business activities. Internal documents – which often need to be available in several languages – are also required for coordinating production processes and supply chains.
These texts contain specifications to help accurately execute working instructions for installations and production processes – they require adherence to industry-specific terminology that describes technical elements with precision and leaves no room for interpretation. This is crucial to ensuring that production processes run flawlessly, not to mention assumption of liability. Technical texts such as these are often maintained in content management systems that are deployed along the entire value chain. It is important that the exported file formats are delivered in the same format following translation, or else are capable of being incorporated directly by the service provider through system integration.
Marketing materials and website texts are also required for selling the company’s own products. These texts must be updated on a regular basis to reflect changes to the product portfolio and the latest advertising campaigns. For these texts, a tone and style which suit the company’s marketing activities and inspire customers’ enthusiasm for the products in their respective language take precedence over specialised terminology and security against liability. These texts could be:
Thanks to many years’ experience with automotive-related texts and close cooperation with specialists in this field, tolingo is able to offer specialised expertise in a variety of different language combinations.
Because of the high demands for translations of technical documents and other texts from the area of automotive engineering, all technical texts at tolingo are processed exclusively by specialised translators, who have either received training in a technical field or have gathered many years of professional experience in translating texts of this nature. Not only are these translators consummately familiar with specialist terminology, they also understand the correlations between technical processes and mechanical manufacturing. When marketing materials require translation, customers also benefit from the involvement of marketing experts at tolingo.
To make sure that mistakes are avoided, our premium translations also involves a second native-speaker specialist translator, who checks the translated texts for grammar and syntax, correct reproduction of the original text’s content, spelling, punctuation and completeness. This process at tolingo is certified in accordance with the international standard ISO 17100 for specialised translations and includes the following:
tolingo also offers special services which improve the cooperation between the client and tolingo as well as the quality of the translation even further. These include creating glossaries and style guides, linking existing content management systems and extensive experience in file engineering. And of course, data protection also takes top priority at tolingo.
tolingo is a competent and reliable partner for all kinds of technical translations. We provide you with a comprehensive service and overall consultation on process design and technical solutions as well as on quality assurance and cost savings through word repetitions and automated procedures. We analyse the systems and processes used by you and create a customised solution for all translation services in your company. This means you can rest assured that your systems, machines and other technical products will be used properly all over the world. We look forward to hearing from you – and to working with you!