Medical Translation Insight

At ForeignExchange, we are big believers in the importance of quality. We don't (just) pursue quality for its own sake but we use it to drive efficiencies in our business and provide improved value to our clients.

One of the important lessons that we learned is that translation quality does not have to be complex. While many companies are pursuing Six Sigma and lean training, in practice most of what will be needed initially is just a basic knowledge and experience with the 7 Quality Tools, also known as the 7 QC Tools.

Pete Abilla's shmula blog has a good overview of these tools:

1. Scatter Plot: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship.
2. Cause and Effect Diagram: (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart) and Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories.
3. Pareto Chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant. It is a sorted Histogram, but focuses on separation in the data.
4. Check Sheet: A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
5. Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs
6. Control Charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time.
7. Flow Chart: Shows a picture of a process in a visual representation – a process map.

He also features this video to provide further insight into how the 7 QC tools are used:


Effective quality control reaches all aspects of an organization and does not require an advanced degree in statistics.

As you might guess, we have lots of related content. Take a look at the quality category or view the following articles:

• Good translations must be expensive
• Is Google Translate accurate enough for professional use?
• Why measure translation quality?

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