Standing face-to-face on the factory floor, Christian Baez and his Chinese colleagues once relied on a translation app to communicate, pausing to point at machines and gesturing to bridge the language gap.
That was how Baez first navigated daily work after joining bearing supplier CW Bearing five years ago.
"The biggest challenge was the language barrier," Baez recalled. "But once we got on the same page, we know what to do and how to operate, then we are good."
The 29-year-old product quality technician spends his days inspecting parts, collecting data and troubleshooting equipment at the company's manufacturing facility in Northville Township, Michigan.
While language differences still surface from time to time, they are no longer a major obstacle in the multinational workplace.
