Translation release list
- Held for review: 0 translations, 0 crew.
- Cleared to publish: 0.
SOP Intelligence
Work in the language people think in
A procedure that is only in one language is not read by everyone who needs it, and a careless translation can change its meaning.
Demonstration: Kestrel Logistics Africa (fictional) · Logistics. Fictional data and a scripted answer.
The situation
- Organisation
- Kestrel Logistics Africa (fictional)
- Who is asking
- Regional training manager
- Industry
- Logistics
- What happened
- Procedures are being translated into four languages for warehouse crews, and machine drafts have started to circulate.
The question asked
Which translated procedures are safe to publish, and which must wait for a native-speaker review?
What it reads, and who can see the result
- Translation register registerProcedures, languages and review status.
- Crew language data exportHow many crew members use each language.
- Reads
- The register's status per procedure and language and the number of crew relying on each.
- Does not read
- Individual workers' records.
- Permission
- Training team's read access.
- Who sees it
- The regional training manager and the site safety leads.
Try it
Review each flagged record: confirm it or dismiss it. The totals and the answer below follow your decisions.
| Procedure | Language | Status | Crew relying on it | Finding | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forklift pre-use check | Swahili | Reviewed by a native speaker | 64 | Matched | None needed |
| Forklift pre-use check | Amharic | Machine draft only | 38 | Machine draft: no native-speaker review | |
| Manual handling | Swahili | Reviewed by a native speaker | 112 | Matched | None needed |
| Manual handling | Zulu | Reviewed, one term flagged | 45 | The term for 'load limit' was flagged by the reviewer as ambiguous | |
| Chemical spill response | Amharic | Machine draft only | 38 | Safety-critical, machine draft, no review | |
| Chemical spill response | Zulu | Reviewed by a native speaker | 45 | Matched | None needed |
- Flagged
- 3 of 6 · 121
- Hold until reviewed
- 0 · 0
- Reviewed
- 0 · 0
- Undecided
- 3 · 121
The answer
Simulated answer. Written for this fictional case, not produced by a live model. Only the figures in it are computed, from what you decided above.
3 of 6 translations are not yet safe to publish, relied on by 121 crew members.
Two kinds of problem: translations that are machine drafts nobody has reviewed, and one where a reviewer flagged an ambiguous term [S1]. The spill-response draft is the most serious because it is safety-critical and unreviewed [S2].
You have chosen to hold 0 (0 crew affected) and have recorded 0 as reviewed; 3 are undecided. A held procedure stays available in the language of its approved original.
Relies on: S1 · Translation registerS2 · Crew language headcount
Review and approval
The regional training manager decides. Approving fixes which translations are published and which wait for review. It does not delete any translation or alter the original procedure.
Not ready to approve. 3 flagged translations are still undecided. Confirm or dismiss each one first.
In the product this is a different person with the right permission. Here you play that role to see the rule.
What it produces
Limits of this example
- A machine translation is not presented as verified, in any language.
- Review quality depends on the reviewer, who is a person.
- This is a scripted demonstration on fictional data. No model was called and no real organisation, person or result is shown.
More in SOP Intelligence
- Capture how work is really doneThe most valuable knowledge in an organisation sits in the heads of a few people, in old recordings, in scattered documents.
- Create a procedure from the sourceWriting a clear, complete procedure from scratch is slow, and the written version often differs from what people actually do.
- Review and approve, as peopleA procedure that nobody accountable has approved is a liability, however well it reads.
- Publish a versioned, official releasePeople work from whichever copy they happen to find, and nobody can say which version was in force on a given day.
- Put the procedure where the work happensA procedure in a folder nobody opens does not change how work is done.
- Ask questions of the approved proceduresPeople ask colleagues instead of reading, because finding the answer in a procedure is slow, and the colleague may be wrong.
The SOP Intelligence story · This capability in the full register