Multilingual Manuals Make Engine Info More Accessible

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As part of Pratt & Whitney Canada’s ongoing effort to tailor services to customers, the company recently launched bilingual engine maintenance manuals (EMMs) for PT6A-34AG, PT6A-114 and PT6A-140 engines in Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish. Learn more...

While retaining its Technical Publications in the language of the engine certification, this innovative new digital offering is a key differentiator that shows Pratt & Whitney Canada customers the company is committed to serving them locally and embracing the global diversification of our market.

It is part of Pratt & Whitney’s ongoing efforts to provide tools and support that enable customers to maintain the highest standards of maintenance practices and associated training.

Sebastien Larue, Senior Manager – Sales and Business Development, says, “This is a very important strategic move by Pratt & Whitney Canada to secure and expand our position in emerging general aviation markets, such as China, Brazil and Latin America, by providing customers with value-added offerings that give them a competitive advantage.”

Bilingual manuals are published with a side-by-side layout that shows the translated version with the original English text on the same page. Users can either view them online on the MyP&WC Power portal or download an offline version using Pratt & Whitney’s new Windows-based Electronic Technical Publication (ETP) Offline Premium standalone application, launched at the end of 2019.

“The side-by-side layout is a key feature of the digital translated engine maintenance manuals,” notes Martin Michaud, Business Systems Team Lead, Digital Technical Information Services. “The side-by-side approach ensures that the user always has the ‘regulatory-accepted’ English version in view for reference. It’s a convenient way to allow them to easily cross-check information in the language of initial manual certification.”

Martin also notes that the multilingual manuals could be a valuable tool for operators when it comes to hiring maintenance technicians.

“For some of our customers, finding maintenance personnel can be challenging. With the new manuals, technicians now have a tool to better work in their native language.”

-    Martin Michaud, Business Systems Team Lead, Digital Technical Information Services

Accept no Substitutes

When it comes to technical publications, the expression ‘lost in translation’ takes on added significance.

First and foremost there’s a question of the quality, explains Lucie Louwet, Senior Project manager of Next Generation Services, who recently retired prior to the article’s publication. “The official multilingual Pratt & Whitney Canada manuals are translated under the supervision of our team and rigorously checked – not once but twice – for accuracy and consistency by technical experts. All this is done with the support and collaboration of Pratt & Whitney’s Canada’s Chief Engineering Office,” she remarks.

Another key point is that our EMMs are updated twice a year.

“Since we manage both the revision and translation processes, we can ensure that the content of versions in other languages remains consistent and accessible at the same location.” 

-    Lucie Louwet, Senior Project Manager, Next Generation Services

Similar to Pratt & Whitney’s English technical publications, whenever a manual that exists in multiple languages is updated, operators will receive a notification letting them know that the English version has been revised. The text in other languages will be updated to reflect the changes within a couple of weeks.

Using P&WC-approved multilingual manuals also allows users to benefit from the interactivity of the company’s technical publications. These feature embedded links to service bulletins, pages for ordering parts, related manuals and so forth.

The Tip of the Iceberg

Customers who have already seen the new translated manuals have given positive feedback. And with operators of Pratt & Whitney Canada-powered engines flying all over the world, there’s interest for more manuals in other languages.

The Technical Publications team plans to produce further multilingual content in the future, based on the engine models and languages for which demand is greatest. Possible candidates include French, Polish and Russian, says Martin.

The process of producing new translations will become faster over time, as Pratt & Whitney Canada builds up a glossary of standardized terms and uses specialized translation software to ensure consistency and increase efficiency.

In the long term, the goal is to employ simplified technical English as much as possible in engine maintenance-related documents. “This will limit the expressions and wordings used to identify maintenance actions, which will drastically reduce possible variability and make the content easier to translate,” notes Martin.

If you’d like to order one of the new Chinese, Portuguese or Spanish PT6A manuals, you can do so by visiting the MyP&WC Power customer portal, by communicating directly with customer.service@pwc.ca, or by calling 1-800-268-8000 Option #3 for technical publications.

Pratt & Whitney Canada is leveraging the digital capabilities of MyP&WC Power to make customers’ lives easier in many ways, from accessing technical publications to ordering parts. Discover more examples in Service Requests Gain Speed on Customer Portal.