Volume Discount ! (?)
The availability of MT (machine translation) and TM (Translation Memory, a database containing existing translations) does signalize the industrial processing of translations. However, these are only tools that the translator can call upon as they complete the bulk of the work themselves.
In translation, if there is a large amount of text, the use of a TM becomes cheaper because repeated and similar sentences are calculated at much lower prices (or perhaps not at all, if the reusability is indisputable.
However, irrespective of the quantity, the actual amount of translation work remains the same and this means that a reduced word price is not appropriate.
On the contrary: for complex and/or multilingual translations, considerable coordination is required to distribute the work, synchronize the results and consolidate the results. This is usually charged in the invoice as a percentage value of the total expenditure under the area of "project management".
MT
Time Expenditure
The guideline of 2,000 to 2,500 words per day represents the net processing time. Since the translator may also be working on other projects, this may lead to delays (you do not want to take the best translator but the translator who is best for this project). Additional time is spent on preparing the text, clarifying any questions that arise and quality assurance.
Therefore, depending on the size of the project, an additional few days should also be calculated into the entire project time.
The use of several translators decreases the processing time, but this is not linear, because the translators must discuss the project with each other and the workload cannot always be ideally distributed (for example, due to various file sizes).
The more translators that are (or must be) used, the more difficult it becomes to avoid or eliminate inconsistencies in the style and word choice.
This means that greater time pressure inevitably leads to compromises in the level of quality.
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