Snapshot of Machine Translation: Knowledge Base and Real-Time Chat. Two Case Studies at Honda Motor Europe

1. Snapshot of Machine Translation:
Knowledge Base and Real-Time Chat
Honda Motor Europe – 2 Case Studies

2. About Yamagata Europe
• EU HQ of Yamagata Group
Japanese family business since 1906
Originally graphic group (printing company)
Today: multilingual technical documentation and communication
• Europe
– HQ in Gent, Belgium (1998):
Translation Agency, top Three in .be.
Websites, Documentation, Software, Machine Translation, QA
tools, Lay-out, print
Bratislava branch
– See also: http://www.yamagata-europe.com
2

3. Honda Motor Europe and Yamagata Europe
•Cooperation since 1998
Translation
Print
•2009: Start of discussions about MT
•2010: First implementation of MT
3

4. 2009: The situation at Honda
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
Honda Database:
Info about all warranty
6300 dealers related issues
45 distributors Free text
28 countries 22 languages
22 languages
one
way
Quality improvement center in the UK
1 Language - English
No linguistic skills
Analysis warranty claims 4

5. 2009: The dream
• Analyze local language warranty claims by English
translations
Reduce recalls by early detection of parts problems
Improve products
Detect problems that occur in non-English markets
5

6. The Challenge
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
High speed - Low budget (no human
translation)
85% understandability
User generated content
Big data
Full system integration with Honda
6

7. Yamagata Europe: The solution
Machine Translation!
7

8. Proposal : Machine Translation
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
Live December 2010
Processing on daily basis
Semi-automated translation flow P.O.O.D.L.E.
semi-automated pre-editing
TM-integrated machine translation
ultra-light post-editing and QA
8

9. Technology
Yamagata’s “Translation Highway”
Webservices for data transfer:
method to enable communication over Internet
XML based messages sent over Internet protocols
no e-mail communication
no telephone communication
9

10. How we did it
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
MT translation into English of German/Russian/Italian warranty claims
issued by local dealers.
Warranty claim text Warranty claim text
Product improvement Translated Warranty claim text
10

11. Constant Improvement
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
TM updates. Regular retraining of engine
Honda feedback loops: glossary updates based upon
translation feedback
Tagging of untranslated strings
87% understandability (target 85%)
Additional languages
11

12. Summary
Case 1: Warranty Claims project
Fast access to previously unavailable information
Budget-friendly
12

13. 2009: The situation at Honda
Case 2: Technical Support Communication – Online Chat
Local Support Centers for
technical support to dealers
22 languages
6300 dealers
45 distributors
Bi-
28 countries directional
22 languages
Central Support System in Offenbach - Germany
No linguistic skills
Q&A on technical issues
13

14. 2009: The dream
Case 2: Technical Support Communication – Online Chat
• Online Chat with dealers & local offices in local language
Reduce response time for technical support communication
Centralize support for highly technical issues
14

15. The Challenge
Case 2: Technical Support Communication – Online Chat
90% understandability
User generated content
2 seconds
Cost-efficient
Small data
Full system integration with Honda
15

16. Yamagata Europe: The solution
Machine Translation!
16

17. Proposal : Machine Translation
Case 2: Technical Support Communication
Live: February 2012
Fully automated multilingual chat
Turnaround time: 2 seconds
17

18. How we did it
Case 2: Technical Support Communication
Multilingual chat between dealer and technical support center about
complex repair issues.
Technical question
Translation request
Translation delivery (2 sec.)
Answer in local language
Aim?
Have all technical questions and complex repair issues treated by 1
centralized technical support center.
18

19. Constant Improvement
Case 2: Technical Support Communication – Online Chat
Pre-editing training for users at Honda
TM updates. Regular retraining of engine.
Tagging of untranslated strings.
Honda feedback loops: glossary updates based upon
translation feedback.
Understandability average: 79.5 % (target 90%).
19

20. Summary
Case 2: Technical Support Communication – Online Chat
Fast
Budget-friendly
20

21. Quality measurements
Identical evaluation by customer and Yamagata
50 sentences per language pair supplied by the customer
Simple rating system
Perfectly understandable
Fully understandable
Barely understandable
Not understandable
21

22. MT @ Yamagata Europe: lessons learned
Speak with data (quantify translation quality)
Pre-editing is key element when translating unstructured content
Importance of Terminology
Overall system integration is more complex than MT aspect
22

23. MT @ Yamagata Europe: lessons learned
Speak with data (quantify translation quality)
Pre-editing is key element when translating unstructured content
Importance of Terminology
Overall system integration is more complex than MT aspect
23