Case study: Creating a bespoke user manual for a niche product from scratch

“I bought a machine in China but it was delivered without a user manual”.

Earlier this year we were contacted by a vending operations company based in the USA that had purchased a pizza vending machine from a manufacturer in China, and had it delivered to its headquarters.

However, there was a slight issue with the machine when it arrived at the company. It was delivered without any kind of operating instructions or user manual, and none of the staff at the company had any idea how to operate it.

A little surprised, the GM of the vending operations company contacted the manufacturer in China, who gave him some frustrating news – that indeed no user manual whatsoever (not even one in Chinese) existed for the machine!

Machine Purchased from China Without a User Manual

# Buying a Machine from China Without an Operating Manual

With a limited warranty, and no way of sending the machine back to China without spending thousands on shipping costs, the GM of the vending operations company in USA had no choice but to find a way to a have a clear, concise, comprehensive, and professional user, operations and maintenance manual written up in English for his vending machine and his operations team.

But how would this be possible? And who could help? The vending operations company is based in the USA, with a machine that only the manufacturer based in Southern China knows how to operate correctly. The GM went online and started his search.

 

Who Can Help Me Write a Manual for an Imported Machine from China?

# Professional Technical Writing for Industrial Equipment

After contacting a few companies who were unable to help, stating that it was beyond their scope of services, he then contacted HI-COM, to see if they had a solution. Thanks to HI-COM’s wealth of knowledge and experience of writing, producing and translating technical user manuals, as well as a permanent presence of a production team in China, the GM had come to the right place.

However, this was not a typical request. In most cases, the client already has a certain amount of content to be used in their manual, such as product information, specifications, user instructions, safety guidelines, images and diagrams of the product. But for this project, HI-COM was effectively starting with a completely blank canvas, as no such content was provided to us by the client, as it simply did not exist!

After discussing with the client and HI-COM’s internal production team, it was concluded that there was only one real solution, which was only possible thanks to HI-COM’s unique attributes:

• Its in-house staff, made up of experienced native English and Chinese translators and technical writers
• Its presence in China

The proposed solution was for two members of HI-COM’S production team (one English and one Chinese), to travel from their Shanghai office to visit the manufacturer of the vending machine in Guangzhou to view the machine and gather all the information they needed to write up the user manual for their American client, and so they did!

 

Creating a Custom User Manual

# How to Get a User Manual for an Imported Machine

Upon arrival at the manufacturer’s factory, there was no reception area, and not a single employee spoke a word of English, so it was vital that HI-COM had a Chinese native with them to find the right person to speak to and arrange the viewing of the machine.

This was also the case when it came to viewing the machine. The machine’s head engineer did not speak any English, so HI-COM’s Chinese Project Manager, who is fluent in English, was able to explain to his English colleague what was being said by the engineer while he was walking them through the components, mechanisms and functions of the machine.

HI-COM’s team made sure that all conversations were recorded, and that sufficient photos and video footage were taken, to equip them with the content they needed.

Technical Writing for Industrial Equipment

# Manual Writing for Chinese Equipment

After arriving back in Shanghai, HI-COM’S production team started work on the manual. Thanks to their experience of writing up other manuals, they split the content into clear, easy-to-read chapters, packed with photos they had taken during their visit.

After finishing a first draft, the team sent the manual to the client for review, and then after a few rounds of modifications and feedback from the client’s technical team, the content was validated. It was now time to work on the presentation of the manual.

 

Design and Layout of Technical User Manuals

Thanks to HI-COM’s in-house DTP and document layout service offering, the client did not need to look elsewhere to finalize his manual. He was able to liaise directly with HI-COM’s design team to obtain the exact layout, style, and format he was looking for, and any last minute changes and updates could be taken care of with a minimum of fuss.

Thanks to HI-COM’s expertise and professionalism, the GM of the vending operations company now had a clear, concise, and comprehensive user manual for his team, enabling them to operate and maintain the vending machine that had previously been laying idle and useless, and in turn bring in valuable income for his company.

 

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