Manual CMS 3D Documents
CASE – 02

Producing Product Catalogs for Overseas Markets

Client B, a manufacturer of industrial parts/components, is about to embark on a production of a Thai edition of its product catalog for the first time. Overwhelmed by many unknowns and concerns, the company wanted to hire a vendor who could guide it as a consultant over the course of the production process.

Client
  • Industrial Parts/Component Manufacturer
Product
  • General Product Catalog (Paper-based)
Language
  • Thai
Total Products Listed
  • 200 Products
Total Pages in Catalog
  • 500 pages
Key Challenges

Akagane’s QCD (Quality, Cost, Delivery) Program: Overseas Production + Language Support + Automatic Processing

Key Benefits

RESULT

The product catalog content was edited by Akagane based on the specifications for the Thai market provided by the client.
Akagane Thailand played an important role as a liaison to directly communicate with the client’s local dealer on details of the project.

Client Process Before After Result
Direction 0.7 FTE months 0.2 FTE months 35% Reduction
Editing 1 FTE month 0.1 FTE months 90% Reduction
Confirmation with Local Dealer Not Possible Done by Akagane Made Possible
Overall Production Lead-Time 3 months 2.7 months 10% Reduction

Production Process, Expertise, and Tech Solutions

FLOW

Data Analysis through Stakeholder Interviews

Akagane conducts the following analyses to thoroughly understand client’s objectives and requirements and current processes as well as design an optimal workflow:
– Analyzing the data structure of a source catalog;
– Identifying variances in content among different countries (product specs, services, prices, deliveries, etc.)
– Evaluating the catalog specificiations and workflow for an overseas version based on the requirements for the target market.

Process Flow Planning

Akagane designs the end-to-end production process including the tasks to be performed at the client’s site based on a client’s requirements. The process is usually to be split into the following 4 sub-processes based on the characteristics:
-Processes that benefit from industry expertise
-Processes involving translation
-Processes which can be automated by software and tech solutions
-Processes which require manual work that can be done effectively overseas

Process Leveraging on Industry Expertise

Akagane’s experts advises a client in the content conversion so as to have catalog content suitable to each target market. Through interviewing the clients’ stakeholders and studying the catalog contents in detail, Akagane identifies and advises the client of modifications required for each market.

Translation

Akagane’s translation service leveraging on its talented linguists with remarkable experiences in English and Asian languages is not limited to just providing superb translation services. In China and Thailand, Akagane’s linguists also play a key role as liaisons on behalf of the clients directly interfacing with their local personnel to work out the details of a project.

Automatic Processing

Akagane streamlines a client’s workflow by automating the processes:
– organizing data to enable a smoother translation process
– to edit finished translations to ensure consistent style or formatting
– to reduce the workload in the proofreading/editing at the client’s site
The automated processes will result in a significant reduction in the workload as well as high quality assurance in the finished products.

Process Using Manual Processing

In the case of a project which may not be automatically processed, Akagane’s production bases in China and Thailand perform analog processing of large volume data. The optimal location is to be selected for a client on a project basis.

Akagane’s Achievements in 2015

Total Translation Volume 10 million characters
Languages for Translations English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, Sinhalese, Tagalog, Malay, Burmese, German, French, Italian, Czech, Portuguese, Spanish, and Polish.
Product/Services Product Catalogs, User Manuals, Operator Manuals, Service Manuals, Technical Documents

Contact Us Inquiries about Case Studies