By using Ondoku, you can instantly reduce the cost that was twice the original cost to within your budget! Introduction of practical examples of Toyota Industries Corporation

• Toyota Industries Corporation
• Size: Approximately 75,000 people (entire group)
• Industry: Machinery
• Interview: Mr. Masuda, Mr. Ogishi

Purpose/Task

Used to create narrations in English and Chinese for the purpose of sharing information using video data with overseas bases.
If outsourced, the cost will be more than twice the budget.

solution

Leave the narration to Ondoku, which can read aloud in English and Chinese.

effect

Successfully brought the narration creation process in-house, reducing costs by more than half .
Not only did we succeed in keeping the project within budget, but we also significantly increased work efficiency .

Introducing the company/introducing department

Our main business is the manufacture and sale of industrial vehicles, automobile parts, and textile machinery. Among these, we boast the world's top market share for forklifts, car air conditioner compressors, and air jet looms.

We have continued to grow by expanding our business on a global scale and collaborating with overseas bases around the world. We are also focusing on environmental initiatives, promoting activities to create a society where people and nature coexist, such as creating animal paths, bird pier, and biotopes.

The Quality Control Department Human Resource Development G, which uses Ondoku, is the department in charge of training technical employees. Among these, our main task is to operate the QC Circle (improvement activities aimed at developing internal human resources), which are held at group companies overseas.

HP: Toyota Industries Corporation

Please tell us about the background behind the introduction of the text reading tool.

As part of our global expansion, we decided that video readings of presentation materials, etc., was a tool that could be resolved within the company, and we introduced it.

At our company, we hold a "Global QC Circle" competition once a year, aiming to improve internal quality. There are more than 600 circles in Japan alone, and this is a place for selected bases, including those overseas, to present the results of their daily activities.

The video data projected at the Global QC Circle Conference must be converted into English and Chinese for the purpose of sharing with each overseas base. Therefore, accurate translation and easy-to-understand narration were essential.

However, we discovered that outsourcing the translation and narration would cost more than twice the budget. When I was thinking about what I could do, I came across a text reading tool that allows me to complete the narration work within my company.

May I ask how you came to introduce Ondoku?

Out of all the services we were considering, the intonation of English and Chinese was the closest to reality.

As our company is expanding globally, we have many human resources who can speak multiple languages, including English and Chinese. When we asked these people about some suggestions for text-to-speech tools, Ondoku was rated as having the most realistic intonation.

Another reason why it was so easy to adopt was that you could easily try it out for free with up to 5,000 characters. There were other places where you could use it for 0 yen, but I gave up on it because it required a lot of effort to use as a company, such as requiring email registration.

After some consideration, we chose Ondoku, which not only allows you to try out actual audio without spending a lot of money, but also has the ability to support multiple languages.

Have your company's issues been resolved (improved) compared to before introducing Ondoku?

By implementing Ondoku, the cost of voiceover work has been cut in half, and we have been able to keep the project within budget.

Another major improvement is that the switch from outsourcing to in-house production has made corrections smoother.

Before using Ondoku, even if we wanted just a small part of the narration to be corrected, we had to communicate with the outsourcing company every time. Currently, the work can be completed in-house, which also leads to a reduction in time costs.

We make full use of Ondoku during the Global QC Circle competition, which is held once a year.

[Slides that actually utilize Ondoku]

English version

Chinese version

If you have any further improvement requests for Ondoku, please let us know.

We would like to see further improvement in the quality of intonation when reading out loud in Japanese. The foreign language audio is well received by locals, but it may take some effort to finely adjust the Japanese intonation.

I would also be happy if there was a function that could accurately read out industry-specific technical terms. I would like to pay special attention to this kind of specialized information.

Finally, it would be helpful if the alphabet could be read correctly. For example, when I entered the word "TICO", there were cases where it would be read as TICO, and cases where it would be played as a completely different word. We look forward to improvements to improve operational efficiency.

Have you received any feedback about Ondoku within your group?

We've heard from our bases in China that Ondoku has reduced their workload.

Up until now, information that was sent out by translating Japanese into English had to be translated locally into Chinese. However, since Ondoku has started sending Chinese audio, it seems that they have been able to free themselves from unnecessary work.

There is also a case where an employee who was preparing for a report meeting using English reports used Ondoku to study listening skills.

I had Ondoku read out the sentences in my report in English and practiced my intonation before the actual performance.

How do you plan to use Ondoku in the future?

I think it would be interesting and convenient if Ondoku could be the moderator for the QC Circle tournament.

When announcing the circle name or theme, sometimes the moderator can't read it well and the progress stops. Additionally, it is necessary to secure human resources who can speak each native language, which incurs costs. Ondoku can support multiple languages, so we see potential.

In addition, since I am currently only using English and Chinese, I would like to actively use Italian, French, German, etc. With the current structure, I can't expand my reach that far, but when the time comes, I would like to rely on Ondoku.

Also, I would be happy if Ondoku could further expand sales. I believe that the more well-known and reliable it becomes, the easier it will be for us to use it in our work.

By using Ondoku, we were able to cut costs by more than half of the original cost and successfully keep the project within budget! Thank you for sharing this wonderful example.

Ondoku is a text reading service that is free for commercial use. We support over 80 languages and dialects, with a total of over 650 speakers. You can listen to the voice types and sample voices of the supported languages here .

Text-to-speech software "Ondoku" can read out 5000 characters every month with AI voice for free. You can easily download MP3s and commercial use is also possible. If you sign up for free, you can convert up to 5,000 characters per month for free from text to speech. Try Ondoku now.

HP: ondoku3.com
Email: ondoku3.com@gmail.com