How Revman Simplified Distribution by Integrating MarkMagic Labeling Solution with Manhattan SCALE

The Customer

A Global Home Furnishings Brand Supplying Major Retailers

Revman International, which got its start in 1988, is a provider of high-fashion home furnishing goods. Revman markets products under its own brands such as Stone Cottage, Nine Palms, and Azalea Skye, and has grown to include a portfolio of designer brands and fashion products for bed and bath.

The company also develops private label collections for major retailers such as Kohl’s, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Headquartered in the iconic Empire State Building in New York City, Revman has become a global brand trusted by retailers worldwide. Revman’s approach to developing its products through outsourcing has enabled the company to produce high-quality goods at competitive prices.

Managing a Global Supply Chain with Manhattan SCALE

In order to maximize their global resources, in 2008 Revman deployed Manhattan Associates SCALE (Supply Chain Architected for Logistics Execution) Warehouse Management Software to manage their supply chain.

Through SCALE, Revman has been able to efficiently manage the high volume of goods they receive and ship worldwide.

The Challenge

Scaling Label Distribution for a Growing Global Vendor Network

Due to the expansion of ecommerce retail, Revman’s international vendor partners needed to increase drop shipping.

To support these partners, Revman physically printed and mailed stacks of retail compliance labels for vendors to affix to drop-shipped cartons.

At first this approach worked well. However, as their vendor community grew from a handful of partners to dozens of manufacturing partners worldwide, Revman found themselves printing and shipping large batches of labels — a process that quickly became time-consuming and expensive.

Maintaining Dozens of Label Formats in Raw ZPL Code

According to Austin Bruce, IT Manager at Revman:

“We were shipping out hundreds of thousands of 4 x 6 shipping labels each year to dozens of manufacturing partners. Eventually we reached a point at which we had over 35 different label formats to maintain.”

He continues:

“The labels were programmed in raw ZPL code for our thermal barcode printers. Any time we needed to modify a label, or add a new one, our programmers would have to make edits to the long strings of code. This required lots of complicated coding, as well as testing each label — pixel by pixel.”

The Solution

Revman Discovers MarkMagic at the Manhattan Momentum Conference

At the Manhattan Momentum customer conference in May 2018, the Revman team met with CYBRA MarkMagic representatives.

Revman explained their labeling challenges to the MarkMagic team, and together the companies designed a solution to simplify labeling operations, improve responsiveness, and reduce the cost and labor required to support international shipping.

Converting Legacy ZPL Labels into Editable Formats

CYBRA’s MarkMagic Bar Code Label Software offered several features that directly improved Revman’s SCALE labeling environment.

Converting labels written in raw ZPL into user-editable formats is typically a long and complex project. However, MarkMagic simplified the process.

CYBRA’s support team used MarkMagic’s proprietary Print Stream Importer, which converts printer output streams — such as Zebra’s ZPL code — into fully editable MarkMagic label formats.

Within minutes, Revman had converted more than 35 SCALE label formats into labels that could be edited and redesigned without writing any code.

Replacing Physical Label Distribution with PDF Label Delivery

Another major advantage came from MarkMagic’s ability to output to virtually any print device or generate PDF files.

Instead of printing thousands of labels and shipping them to international partners, Revman began generating PDF versions of shipping labels using MarkMagic’s PDF/Email/Fax Add-on.

These PDF label files are automatically emailed to Revman’s manufacturing partners around the world.

Sending a multi-thousand-page PDF file to each vendor takes only seconds, replacing the previous process of printing and shipping stacks of physical labels worldwide.

Automating Label Generation with PrintTransformer

To automate the workflow, Revman added a single SQL statement to the SCALE Wave Flow Sequence to integrate MarkMagic printing.

Revman also implemented the MarkMagic PrintTransformer add-on, which dynamically manages printing rules without custom programming.

For example:

One rule names the PDF output file using variable data from the SCALE Wave data.

Another rule concatenates the SCALE Wave# and WorkUnit# to generate separate PDF files whenever those values change.

A third rule saves the PDF files to a network share and automatically emails them to vendors.

Fully Automated Label Processing with PrintMonitor

To streamline the process even further, Revman enabled the MarkMagic PrintMonitor add-on.

PrintMonitor watches the Wave folder continuously. Whenever a new file appears, the system automatically triggers the label generation process.

The entire workflow — from label generation to distribution — is fully automated and accomplished without any custom programming.

The Benefits

Dramatic Cost Savings and Reduced Label Maintenance

By leveraging several MarkMagic features, Revman achieved significant cost and time savings while streamlining its shipping processes.

Ongoing label maintenance effort was reduced by approximately 95%.

By replacing physical label shipments with emailed PDF files, Revman eliminated costly label shipping expenses and significantly reduced delays in overseas shipments.

Revman’s investment in MarkMagic paid for itself in under six weeks and continues to deliver long-term savings.

Empowering Non-Technical Staff to Manage Labels

Another key advantage is the simplified label maintenance process.

With MarkMagic’s intuitive visual designer, non-technical staff members can edit existing labels and design new ones quickly and easily.

This eliminates the need for programmers to painstakingly edit native Zebra printer ZPL code.

Changes can be applied instantly and tested in seconds. Label creation and updates are no longer dependent on specialized SCALE programming resources.

MarkMagic has given Revman complete independence over their label printing process.

Faster Operations for Global Vendor Partners

The project has delivered benefits not only for Revman, but also for its global vendor partners.

Label files can now be generated and delivered anywhere in the world within seconds.

Vendors no longer need to wait for physical labels and can easily reprint labels when needed.

In addition, vendors are no longer limited to using Zebra printers. They now have the flexibility to use a wide range of supported printers that best fit their operations.

Optimized MarkMagic drivers produce compact, searchable PDF files that can easily be printed, stored, shared, or archived.

Supporting Future Supply Chain Growth

Revman is also planning to expand its use of MarkMagic.

The company intends to print its own on-premise warehouse labels, helping manage the more than three million internal labels shipped annually from Revman’s domestic warehouse.

Beyond labels, Revman plans to use MarkMagic to create and print documents such as:

• Packing slips
• Bills of lading
• Additional operational forms

If Revman eventually migrates to Manhattan Associates SCALE Active cloud, web-based MarkMagic is already prepared to support that transition.

According to Revman IT Manager Austin Bruce:

“We’re excited to see where else MarkMagic can fit into our plans.”

With MarkMagic’s flexibility and automation capabilities, Revman and its vendors have streamlined their supply chain fulfillment operations and are well positioned for future growth.

Proven Compatibility with Manhattan SCALE Environments

According to CYBRA VP of Operations Chuck Roskow:

“A typical SCALE customer has a collection of SCALE .lbl ZPL files for which they have invested substantial resources to modify and certify over the years. In no time at all, any SCALE .lbl ZPL file can be imported to MarkMagic and printed on any of the hundreds of supported printer types or output as a PDF file.”

Combined with MarkMagic’s intuitive designer and automation tools such as PrintTransformer and PrintMonitor, the Manhattan SCALE labeling process becomes significantly more responsive to changing customer requirements.

Revman’s successful integration of MarkMagic with SCALE clearly demonstrates the value of this approach.