Translation Quality

Principles Behind Arc Communications Translation Quality

Arc Communications believes that generating high quality does not incur excess costs, rather it serves to generate profit.
Modeled on the quality management philosophy and methods of Japan's manufacturing industry, which is famed for its high quality, we are constantly committed to:

• Achieving the required quality at a low cost
• Separating the creator from the person in charge of assuring quality
• Maintaining a uniform level of quality

Looking at the diagram below, it is clear that Arc Communications is able to simultaneously pursue the seemingly conflicting goals of quality and profit. We are truly able to build win-win relationships in which customer satisfaction is raised while we also profit.

Why Translator Caliber is High

Only a miniscule 5% of applicants pass our rigorous trial.
Moreover, the outstanding translators that are able to meet this challenge are further evaluated in interviews by multiple project managers and are ranked based on evaluations of their work during a provisional registration period. Information is shared among project managers through use of a translator database, and the optimal translator is assigned to each project. The translators devote themselves to their work everyday, receiving feedback from a proofreader for each project and comments from clients and project managers. In addition, once a year an outstanding translator is recognized with the Arc Communications Translator of the Year award, which encourages competition among translators.

Why Careless Mistakes are Few

No matter how great the translator, careless mistakes are difficult to avoid. For all work done by translators, Arc Communications has a proofreader conduct a quality check to ensure there are no significant errors in accuracy, figures, proper nouns and other areas. If mistakes are found, the translator is asked to make corrections. After layout adjustments have been made, Quality Assurance conducts a page-by-page check, and finally the project manager does a spot check before the project is submitted to the client. Checking two and three times ensures that translations are free of mistakes.

Why Quality is Consistent

Arc Communications works everyday to reduce inconsistencies in quality even when multiple translators work on the same project. Work proceeds with groups of several to several dozen translators on localization and translation projects that cover tens of thousands of pages. Because of this, problems tend to arise related to the consistency of terminology and notation, which leads to reduced quality.

The following introduces some of the methods we use to prevent inconsistencies in terminology and notation.

Distribution of project instructions

These serve as guidelines for translators working on a project. Style guides, term lists and other information is shared among the project members.

Creation of a sample

A sample translation is made before work on a project begins, which provides project members with more detailed information than can be conveyed in the project instructions.

Construction of a community site

All important information like questions and terminology selection issues that arise after the project actually begins is shared using groupware and mailing lists.

Why Delivery Period Management is Excellent

Our project managers manage the progress of projects by dividing all work into the smallest possible processes. Under the assumption that deviation inevitably arises during processes, arrangements are made in advance to rectify delays. We sometimes also take advantage of time differences and assign jobs to translators scattered around the world as a means of shortening the delivery period.

Discovering and solving as many problems as possible during upstream processes eventually serves to shorten overall delivery time. This is a fact that our project managers have taken to heart. They spend considerable time and employ considerable wisdom before even sending instructions out to the translator.

Reasons Why Language Quality is High

At Arc Communications, all translation work involving Japanese is carried out by both a translator who is a native speaker of the target language and a Japanese translator. English to Japanese translations are done by a Japanese translator proficient in English, which are then checked by a translator who is a native speaker of English.
Having a Japanese translator and a translator whose native language is English check each other’s work allows for a detailed check of areas where linguistic nuance may have been misinterpreted. Translators are not only experts proficient in their chosen language pair, they also possess a high degree of background knowledge in each field of translation work.

Translation is not simply converting one language into another word for word. The translator must have a firm grasp on the content, intent and tone of the source document and take into consideration the cultural elements and differences in ideas when creating anew the world of the source text in another language. It is very important to ensure that the translation doesn’t stick unnecessarily to the original source file (become a direct, word-for-word translation). For Japanese translations, the level of expertise a Japanese translation company has is indispensable.
Only by paying extra care to both what is written on paper and what is written between the lines can a translation high in linguistic quality be made.

Translation Structure and Workflow (Large Volume Translations)

The Secret Behind High Quality Translations With a Short Turnaround Time

“What translator best meets our client’s requirements quality-wise?” “Is there a way to keep translation costs within our client’s budget using text analysis software to take out matching sections to lower the amount of translation work?” These are some of the issues our project managers ponder as they go above the normal duties of a translation company to provide clients with the best possible solution considering the client’s needs.
Further, by keeping our clients up to date with regards to the progress status of their translation project through groupware, our translation service has the flexibility to promptly and accurately respond to additional requests from our clients.

Total Solution Strength: Continued Assistance Even After Translation Work is Done

We at Arc Communications see translation requests as the first step along the process of meeting our client’s requests. Translation is not the objective itself, but rather a means for meeting the objective.
Arc Communications’ strength lies in its ability to provide a communication service that is able to accurately, effectively and efficiently respond to every business need faced by our clients by working together with them towards a solution.

• Company D Case Study: Translation and interpretation support for dealing with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX 404)
• Company E Case Study: Revision and management of frequently-generated educational materials
• Company F Case Study: Order processing and inventory management for the distribution of printed documents
• Company G Case Study: Preparing press releases and their relevant notifications with a quick turnaround

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