Case Study

Translate product data

How article descriptions can be translated automatically and clearly

  • Swiss family business
  • Technology group operating in 140 countries worldwide
  • Global network of 30 production sites
  • Over 13 000 employees
  • Leading market positions in mechanical and thermal process technologies

Challenge: Hundreds of thousands of articles­names and instructions

The global Buhler Group is faced with the challenge of using and translating hundreds­thousands of articles­designations and text parts for machines uniformly in different languages.

Goal: Translation with little effort and low costs

A uniform terminology and description should enable the same article entry and automatic translation. The number of articles should thus be reduced and less "data garbage" should be created, which in turn reduces the effort in data maintenance and saves costs.

By continuously updating translated terms, the system will improve itself, which means an enormous workload reduction and time saving worldwide.

Implemented: Part text management for worldwide unique article­designations

How does the company deal with homonyms if a word stands for several terms? And how can the same term meaning be given in foreign languages? For example, unlike German, there is no preposition in Chinese. How does Buhler manage foreign languages that differ greatly in syntax (language structure)?

When entering articles, the engineer simply selects the appropriate standard term for his article in his input language in the system. The term entered is also recognized across the system. Translations are carried out automatically, whereby words that are the same but have different meanings (homonyms) are correctly interpreted and translated.

Data is generated in these systems

  • The language database provides definitions and supports translation in all languages.
  • In the PDM system, an item is named after a previously defined "key".
  • The PDM system uses the language database.
  • This means that the actual "translation mechanism" is directly integrated into the product data and data entry process.
Requirements

Consistent designations & coordinated concept

Buhler and Intelliact build on the knowledge base of the terminology database and implement a term selector for the complex language-specific topic. It is based on a "key" developed by terminology experts.

In the future, the partial text management developed by Intelliact will be able to go one step further and update new term entries for all languages. With this continuous improvement in parts naming, employees worldwide can securely access unique article descriptions.

  • In order to standardize part designations - no matter in which system - consistency is required. The basis for this is a terminology database (language database).
  • A globally coordinated concept ensures unique article designations.
  • A "key" in the term selector makes it possible to structure the term definition such as "shaft for fork joint 200mm".
  • Systems such as ERP and PDM consume the language service and thus integrate the translation process into the entry or change process.



Do you also strive for seamless, cross-system and system-neutral article naming with a uniform structure on a global multilingual level? We would be happy to support you in the implementation of your terminology/translation project.

Contact Uwe Leonhardt
Do you have any questions?