Convenience store chain Sheetz Inc. was faced with antiquated material-handling equipment, inadequate software and short supply of warehousing capacity.

Instead of displacing American workers, robots may soon make many of their jobs more efficient.

Challenge: A global 3PL recently began providing fulfillment services for large, heavy components of cellphone tower parts. Due to size, material handlers often had to wait for forklift drivers to move components to static computer and printer desks in order to process orders. Workers also had to walk back and forth from staging areas to desks to enter data and print labels. Employee overtime grew in order to handle backlog, and workers reported stress and fatigue.