Ocado Engineering – Localization and setting up MTPE processes
When did we work with them?
From 2019 to the present
What do they do?
Learn more about Ocado Engineering’s autonomous warehouses here.
What did we do?
Translate their documentation using the latest MTPE processes
Key stats
30%
Cost saving delivered to Ocado Engineering for their MTPE translation vs tradtional translation.
60%
Faster translations delivered to Ocado Engineering.
The impact for Ocado Engineering:
- 168 translated manuals into 7 target languages delivered to Ocado Engineering in 2025.
- Ocado Engineering now have an established translation memory, termbase and library of translated graphics, leading to fast future translations.
- Translations are now delivered faster and at a lower cost than before.
What was the context for 3di helping Ocado?
Ocado Engineering is part of the Ocado Group, which is the FTSE 100 listed grocery retailer, well-known for pioneering online grocery shopping in the UK. Ocado have been exporting its cutting-edge logistics model for several years, which includes the fully autonomous logistics centre. These centres operate with the combined efforts of hundreds of robots, that can expedite orders without the need for human intervention. In order for this system to work, each part of the process needs to work accurately and consistently.
While Ocado Engineering already has fully working logistics centres in the UK, to successfully reproduce this in France, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Japan, Korea, and Canada, they needed to translate and localize documentation for these new centres into seven target languages. Although many of the engineers in those countries could use English manuals, Ocado wanted local language versions for contractual, compliance, ease-of-use and customer experience reasons.
The installation, operation and maintenance manuals are about complex robots, the grids they operate in, and the infrastructure needed to maintain them. As well as concept, task and reference text, the manuals include diagrams, charts, schematics and other graphical elements that include or are supported by text – all of which needed to be translated.
The challenges Ocado faced
At the start of our collaboration, Ocado Engineering were in the process of standardising their manuals on MadCap Flare and establishing a standard approach from their authors.
While the documentation was of good quality and explained the ideas and processes well, it wasn’t optimised for translation and localization.
Because of the complex subject matter and the accuracy needed, this project needed translators that could not only work in the target language but also had the experience of working with robotics and automated systems.
Are you facing similar challenges with your documentation?
The solution 3di created for Ocado
The 3di team:
- Worked closely with Ocado engineers and authors to understand the content, and agreed standards for the way the English was to be written and with the way the tools were to be used to optimise the manuals for translation and localization.
- With the Ocado Engineering Localization Manager, created multi-lingual glossaries before translation, and used XTMCloud to manage these alongside the growing translation memory databases. This helped to ensure consistency across documents and sped up the translation process.
- Used translators with previous experience in translating content for robotics and autonomous systems, so that accuracy of terminology was maintained.
The results of the collaboration between 3di and Ocado
- 3di have helped Ocado Engineering optimise their content for localization – making the process quicker and more efficient.
- The Ocado Engineering authors are now creating manuals that are more consistent, easier to translate, and reusing English that has already been translated, saving time and money.
- The localization process has now been established and prototyped with the manuals needed for sites in the seven countries that Ocado operate in. Ocado Engineering can now be confident that as they open up operations for customers in other countries, creating and localizing the manuals will get easier, supporting efficient deployment, and reinforcing the Ocado Engineering brand.