As ACC’s founder, Robert J. Tomasetta, retires from the operational role he has held with the company for 34 years to serve as Chairman of the Board, the team has had many moments to reflect on his legacy and the future of the industry. Bob has had a significant impact on his staff and the businesses the company has served well for more than a generation. His farsightedness, dedication, and innovative thinking have laid the groundwork for ACC’s continued success helping customers reach their own objectives and potential.
Let’s take a short look back at ACC’s history. Robert J. Tomasetta founded Automated Control Concepts Inc. (ACC) in January 1983. To start ACC, Bob left the confines of the General Electric Programmable Logic Controller business to open ACC’s first office in Union, New Jersey, focused on programming those then very “mysterious” programmable controller devices. Today, ACC has grown to become a much-admired company having successfully executed projects in many industries and applications on five continents.
A storied timeline
1980s
By 1985, ACC as a business was clearly successful and viable, so Bob decided to move ACC to Neptune at the beautiful New Jersey shore. While ACC has expanded its footprint over the years, it has remained at the same address and has the same phone number it did at the start. We at ACC see that as a symbolic link to the values and work ethic on which Bob founded the business.
Following ACC’s beginnings as a PLC programming business, the ACC team began to journey into the diversification of technologies, manufacturers, and applications. We were early adopters of utilizing the Personal Computer on the plant floor and heavy users of some of the original HMI/SCADA software products, specifically Intellution’s FIX (running on MS-DOS no less!). In 1987 we developed the OP/Station® product line – designed to protect computers in harsh environments – a business that still thrives today.
In the late 1980s, ACC became active participants and evangelists for the ISA-S88 standard on batch automation. Batch continues to be a significant portion of ACC’s business.
1990s
Throughout the early 1990s, ACC experienced significant growth, most of it coming from our team’s expertise in the process industries – particularly pharmaceutical manufacturing. In 1996 we began our foray into the utility market developing our substation automation practice. We expanded our activities in the area of Manufacturing Information Technology and became a founding member of the ISA95 committee on Enterprise-to-Control System integration. In 2002 we expanded into our current 15,000 sq ft headquarters facility.
2000s
Throughout the decade of the 2000s we expanded our reach into a wide array of infrastructure (water, transportation, utility) and process industries. We also introduced two targeted products, processRecords® for workflow management and data collection and bioStation, a flexible bioreactor control solution.
2010s
Recently ACC has developed a significant practice in energy monitoring and facility automation – serving college campuses, hospitals, and industrial manufacturers. In 2011, we officially opened our Rockville, Maryland, office.
2013
ACC celebrates its 30th anniversary.
2017
As the manufacturing landscape continues to evolve with innovations in technology, we look forward to continuing to expand our services and reach, while staying true to our founding customer-focused principles of stability and long-term relationships, and continuing to maintain a high level of ethics, integrity, and excellence.
Thanks in great part to the foundation built by our founder, and the efforts of a team known for its ingenuity, curiosity, and loyalty, ACC is uniquely positioned to create and apply smart solutions for its customers for many years to come.
