The translation industry doesn't help the situation. The industry is fragmented and customers often find it difficult to obtain information on vendors, quality control processes, and case studies. Few translation clients have instituted cross-departmental task forces to deal with translation or localization or multilingual labeling. The person in charge of translations is sometimes not in the loop when it comes to product development schedules or engineering change orders. This then extends to the translation vendor who also does not receive any advance notice and is left to reprioritize schedules and resources at a moment's notice.
Roles are often unclear.
In-country reviewers are usually not dedicated to proofreading translations. Folks in charge of managing their company's translation efforts do so on top of an already-full work schedule. To make matters worse, clients and vendors often do not see eye to eye. This lack of planning and communication causes delays and cost overruns, especially in environments that demand rapid product deployment and are faced with fast-changing technology requirements. Services provided are often sketchy, leading to expensive and time-consuming change orders.