If you work in manufacturing marketing, you’ve probably felt the pain of inconsistent translations. One distributor calls your product a “unit,” another a “module,” and in your French manuals the same part is translated three different ways. On top of that, your carefully crafted marketing messages get diluted as they move from market to market.
This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s risky for manufacturing companies. Inaccurate terminology in product manuals can confuse customers or even create safety issues. And in marketing, inconsistency makes your brand look less credible in highly competitive global markets.
That’s where a glossary comes in.
A glossary may look like a simple list of terms, but for manufacturers it’s one of the most powerful tools in translation project management. It ensures technical precision in documentation, protects your brand voice in marketing, and saves your team countless hours of corrections and rework.
In this article, we’ll explore:
- why glossaries are a game-changer for manufacturing companies with ongoing translation needs,
- how to create your first glossary, and
- the best practices that will make it a cornerstone of your global marketing strategy.
Why Glossaries Are Essential in Manufacturing document translations
Manufacturers face unique challenges that make glossaries especially valuable:
- Technical accuracy: Product manuals, installation guides, and spec sheets rely on precise terminology. A glossary ensures the same part or function is never described in conflicting ways.
- Regulatory compliance: In industries like automotive, aerospace, medical devices, and consumer electronics, mistranslations can lead to compliance issues or even safety risks.
- Consistency across channels: From datasheets to websites, catalogs to marketing campaigns, terminology needs to stay aligned across every touchpoint to avoid confusion.
- Global brand credibility: When customers in every market see the same precise terms, it builds trust and reinforces your expertise.
- Time and cost savings: With consistent terminology, translators work faster and review cycles are shorter, keeping projects on schedule and within budget.
How to Create Your First Glossary
So where do you start?
One of the most common reasons why translation project managers don’t build a glossary is this: “too busy” or “no time.”
And it’s true. Many marketers, especially in manufacturing, rely on tools like Redokun to spend as little time as possible on translation projects. The goal is to reduce time to market and focus energy on other marketing priorities. We get it.
But here’s the good news: you don’t need to build an exhaustive termbase overnight. You can start small and focus only on the terms that matter most for your manufacturing content. Here’s how:
1. Identify your core terms
Start with the 20–50 terms that are most important for your product and marketing content:
- Product names and part numbers
- Technical functions and specifications
- Safety-related terms (warnings, cautions, standards)
- Marketing keywords/taglines that reflect your brand positioning
2. Decide what information to include
Each glossary entry should have:
- Source term (your company’s standard English term)
- Approved translation (per target language)
- Notes:
- Definition or context (explain what the term means and where it appears—manual, datasheet, marketing brochure)
- Usage notes (capitalization, abbreviations, do’s and don’ts)
3. Involve cross-functional stakeholders
Glossary creation isn’t just a translator’s job. Where possible, you should also involve:
- Engineering/Product teams (to guarantee technical accuracy)
- Marketing teams (to protect brand tone and messaging)
- Customer support (to reflect how users actually talk about your product)
4. Use the right tools
A spreadsheet works for your first glossary, but for ongoing projects, use a translation management system (TMS) that integrates glossary entries directly into the workflow. This ensures translators see approved terms in real time as they work on your manuals or marketing campaigns.
Best Practices for Manufacturing Glossaries
Glossaries deliver the most value when they’re managed strategically. Here are the practices that top manufacturing marketers follow:
1. Build your glossary before projects start
Don’t wait until you’re halfway through translating a 200-page product manual to decide you need one. Create your glossary as part of your project planning phase. Introducing new products with new technical terms? Add them in advance. It prevents inconsistencies from spreading and saves you from expensive corrections later.
2. Focus on high-value terms
Not every word needs to go into the glossary. Prioritize terms that affect product safety, customer comprehension, or brand credibility.
3. Build on work already done
If you’ve already created a glossary for certain language pairs, replicate it for others. This allows you to quickly cross-pollinate adopted terms and build stronger, more comprehensive glossaries across all languages.
4. Keep it updated
Your product line evolves, and so should your glossary. Treat it as a living document and update it whenever new features, parts, or campaigns are introduced. For example, include glossary management as part of your product launch task list, so you’re reminded every time you have major updates that require new document translations or revisions.
5. Assign ownership
Designate a glossary owner (often a localization manager or translation project lead) who approves new entries and ensures consistent updates.
6. Make it accessible to all key partners
As your documents use consistent translations, it will naturally help partners stick to the right terminology. But it’s a good idea to ensure your key distributors, agencies, and local sales teams have access to the same glossary. The broader its adoption, the more consistent your brand will be worldwide.
6. Build on work already done
If you’ve already created a glossary for certain language pairs, replicate it for others. This allows you to quickly cross-pollinate adopted terms and build stronger, more comprehensive glossaries across all languages.
Mistakes Manufacturing Marketers Should Avoid
- Waiting until launch deadlines are near: Glossary creation is much harder under time pressure.
- Including irrelevant terms: Glossaries should solve confusion, not overwhelm translators with clutter.
- Leaving out context or notes: Technical terms without explanation can still lead to errors. Ensure translators (internal or external) can check the notes so it’s clear when and how to apply these terms.
- Not aligning with distributors: If local partners ignore your glossary, inconsistencies will creep back in. The glossary is your company’s asset—you need to own it and reinforce adoption.
How Redokun Helps with Glossary Management
Building and maintaining a glossary doesn’t have to add extra work to your already busy schedule. With Redokun, glossary management becomes part of your translation workflow, instead of a separate task you need to worry about, or a scattered Excel file that’s difficult to version-control.
Here’s how Redokun supports you:
- Centralized glossary: Store all your key terms in one place and keep them consistent across projects.
- Integrated with AI translation: Redokun uses your glossary to guide AI-generated draft translations, so you can kickstart projects quickly—without compromising accuracy or brand consistency.
- Translator-created entries (coming soon): Allow selected translators to create new glossary entries directly, streamlining collaboration.
- Easy updates (coming soon): Add new terms as you work in the Web Editor. Redokun automatically makes them available to all collaborators.
- Collaboration-friendly (coming soon): Enable translation teams to contribute to building and refining your glossary together.
- Faster time to market: By reducing back-and-forth corrections, your product documentation and marketing campaigns get published faster.
It’s simple to use. You just need to enter three elements: source language, target language approved translation, and notes. We intentionally designed it this way so creating and managing a glossary is as easy as possible.
For manufacturing marketers, this means you can spend less time managing translations and more time focusing on brand growth and market expansion—while knowing that your terminology is always consistent.
Conclusion: Glossaries Are Your Translation Guardians
For manufacturing marketers, a glossary isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a critical tool. It ensures technical accuracy in documentation, protects your brand voice in marketing, and reduces both cost and time in every translation project.
Start small, plan early, and make your glossary a living asset. Even a 30-term glossary can dramatically improve translation quality and safeguard your brand as you expand into new markets.
In manufacturing, precision matters. Your manufacturing facilities and operations are precisely planned and executed. Your translation efforts should be too. A glossary ensures that precision translates across every language, every market, and every customer touchpoint.
Tired of chasing consistency across translations? With Redokun’s Glossary, it takes minutes to set up, and you’ll save hours down the line. Try it free today.
