The necessity of English translation for overseas equipment
In this article, I would talk about "The necessity of English translation for overseas equipment". Due to globalization, there are more and more opportunities to export and import production equipment to and from overseas. Unlike the case where Japanese equipment is used in Japan, when equipment is used in an overseas factory (the same applies to the case where equipment manufactured overseas is used in Japan), the language barrier becomes a major issue.
The negative effects of not having English translations of the instruction manuals for mass production equipment
For example, let's assume that a Japanese manufacturing company prepares a mass production equipment in Japan and ships it to an overseas plant. The overseas plant will be in China.
In this case, the users of the mass production equipment will be Chinese people. The mass production equipment we have prepared in Japan is written in Japanese, and the operation panels and drawings are all in Japanese. This makes it difficult for Chinese users to understand the details. They have to do years of mass production in such conditions.
It is a fact that there are Chinese people working in Japanese companies who can speak Japanese. In China, there are many people who study Japanese. There are many Chinese people I know who speak Japanese.
However, this is a problem for the Chinese side.
Also, it is not possible to support all Japanese equipment in Chinese. You can't expect equipment manufacturers to prepare Chinese translation.
As a compromise, Japanese and English should be written together. This way, even if they don't understand Japanese, they can look it up in English.
Major challenges to localizing in production engineering
In the case of Japanese companies, many Japanese are resident in the country. At the end, the Japanese have to take care of the equipment. Simply put, even if the infrastructure isn't in place, they can still send an engineer to handle it. Although it puts load on the expatriate engineer, this is the Japanese way. However, this will never lead to localization, and the locals will never become attracted to the equipment.
English translation that should be included in mass production equipment used at overseas plants
Because of this background, at some point I began to include the following specification.
- English translation of equipment manuals
- English translation for mechanical drawings and parts list
- English translation for wiring diagrams
- English translation on PLCs and operation panels, including internal comments
- If PC is included, select English OS, and the software in English.
It would be a load for the equipment supplier. But it was clear that if we didn't take care of this at the entrance, we would suffer on site for years to come. So we decided to take care of it.
We explained to our suppliers many times from the equipment design stage, and also repeatedly at the stage of reviewing and finishing equipment. It can be a challenge to deal with at first. But once they've experienced it, it becomes standard the next time.
The Importance of English Translation to Recognize
I had actually missed this problem for years.
I didn't know about other people's difficulties until I used the equipment in another language. I was the one who set up Japanese equipment in China, so there was no language barrier. However, when I was in a position to operate foreign equipment, I couldn't even press a single button on the control panel because I didn't understand the language. People can't understand the struggles of others unless they struggle.
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