Machines Are Making Your Sushi, And That's Good

U.S. productivity is awakening from a long slumber thanks to laborsaving investments

In the belly of a machine about the size of an office printer, a plastic roller presses sticky rice onto a bed of seaweed. The oxygen-to-grain ratio has been precisely calibrated with the aid of X-ray tests. A razor slices the sheet into a flawless rectangle, which plunks down onto a steel tray ready to be stuffed with ruby-red tuna or smoked eel.

The $14,000 robot can help a food-prep worker churn out 200 sushi rolls an hour—up from the 50 or so a chef could make by hand, according to Autec USA Inc., the Torrance, Calif., company that sells the machine. Chief Executive Officer Taka Tanaka says orders have quadrupled over five years amid rising sushi consumption and a growing chef shortage. Among his customers are Whole Foods Market Inc. and Sushirrito, a minichain of restaurants that specializes in a burrito-sushi amalgam.

Service industries have lagged other sectors in spending on labor-saving equipment during this economic expansion, because as long as workers were plentiful and wages stagnant, it made more sense to hire than to invest in automation. As labor markets in the U.S. tighten, the calculus is changing. “Business doesn’t arbitrarily invest in capital, rather they do so in response to rising labor costs,” says Carl Riccadonna, chief U.S. economist at Bloomberg.