Communicating Design Intent in China

if you find one, post it here, I have the same problem

Keep the language simple enough so that a child could understand it. Notes should only be there to assist in explaining the drawing in slightly more depth or to help indicate potential or special requirements that cannot be fully made clear using pictures alone.

Try to stay away from technical jargon as it doesn't translate well and can cause misunderstandings if the jargon is only used in the US. The same goes for acronyms. You may know what "Ensure molding is YFLR compliant using JSFT process", but others are unlikely too.

If the people trying to work from your drawings don't have particularly good English skills (or access to them) they may try and use an online translation tool such as "Bablefish". This does not translate technical engineering language well.

In the end, keep the language and text as simple as possible and let the drawing be the guide. If too much text is needed to explain something you should seriously consider creating another drawing instead, after all "a picture is worth a thousand words".

Your problem is well known but was only first noticed during WW1 and WW2 when the English sought to have Americans make things from English plans.

The problem: is the Technical drawing rules and formats are different. The textbook case is Tolerances and Notes. Americans usually write everything on the drawing, the English number everything and use a text block. This might seem small but Packard found they had to redraw all the merlin plans as their engineers simply couldn't deal with it.

The Solution: is to visit the factory and talk to the engineers on the ground, they will show you what they use and can deal with, you can then make your plans sensible to them.

dont try and work it out over the phone/internet, you have to go see how they do things. Its no good telling them how to do something they have no idea about.

have a nice trip, Pity you missed the Olympics!

In my experience, (which is somewhat limited) if I wanted the Chinamen to build from my drawings rather than from the model I would only send them the drawing in a PDF format. They can accomplish this with no problem, especially when I tell them that I can take my business elsewhere. There have been times that they would argue over dimensions and become somewhat anal over it, but you just have to make them understand what you want.

Contact your local college and see if they have a Chinesse Language Class and see the instructor for advice on communicating with those in China.

I bet they can solve your porblems quickly.

"...and do you really want to have to recall all your products for the sake of a few extra dollars on the quote"

I don't have any figures to support or refute, but I'm sure it's more than a "few extra dollars". More like 9 figures, I would think.

I do not know exactly what you want to ask. I am a mechanical design in Canada and I was a mechanical engineer in China. There is no such book you are looking for unless you can read chinese. If you give more specific questions , I can try to find some information for you.

Good luck.

I would think the answer to your problem is to hire a Chinese person who can translate the drawings from English into Chinese. We had a similar situation. We had drawings in Italian to work from and we had to communicate both in writing and verbally in Spanish. We had a bank of translators who did nothing else but translate. For these people, we used temps. The job lasted two years.

They know damn well what you want. They are just trying to get you to open the spec wide as a barn door. That way they can "industrialize" the process. This makes it easier for the billions of uneducated wretches over there to be able to make your widget.

Take you time now though, they are off on another holiday this week. The Chinese are almost as bad as the French.

If you have to whore it out to the lowest common denominator you may want to try india. At least they pretend to give a Sh*t.

More than likely they are trying to understand the design well enough to rip it off themselves. The Chinese have no concept of ethics. Lie cheat and steal is the name of the game, they are as bad as all the politicians in DC. patents, copyrights, laws, they mean nothing.

I need a drink to wash the taste of the bailout crap sandwich out of my mouth, anybody have any muratic acid?