Translating manufacturing documentation without breaking the specification

Technical documentation is translated to be used, not filed. Operators read procedures, technicians read specifications, auditors read quality records. The success criterion is therefore different from legal documents: the output has to be executable without interpretation.

What must not change at all

• Part numbers and product codes. Not translated, not reformatted, not corrected even when they look wrong.
• Units of measurement. Keep the original unit. Where conversion is needed, add it in brackets without removing the original value.
• Tolerances and ranges. Plus-minus signs, upper and lower bounds and the number of decimal places must be identical.
• Standard references. International standard numbers are not translated and not swapped for a local equivalent without your approval.
• Safety warnings. Severity levels in warnings carry technical meaning that word choice must not soften.

The glossary is the first job, not the last

Manufacturing companies usually already have an internal vocabulary: machine names, process step names, part designations. Some are already in English, some are mixed. Handing over documents without handing over that vocabulary is asking the translator to guess.

1. Collect the terms used on the production floor

   Including internal abbreviations and informal designations that appear in the documents.

2. Decide what is translated and what is kept

   Many technical terms are safer left in the original language, because that is what operators and suppliers recognise.

3. Lock the list before the first page is worked on

   Changing terminology mid-project means rechecking every document already completed.

Layout that must be preserved

Engineering drawings, flow diagrams and specification tables convey information through position, not only through words. Text inside images needs separate handling, and the result needs checking so it does not overflow the space available — Indonesian text is generally longer than English.

Say at the outset if the output must stay in its original format and be print-ready. That is layout work which belongs in the quotation, not a request made after translation is finished.