FabTime Cycle Time Management Newsletter Reaches 1000 Semiconductor Industry Subscribers, Inspires 2-Day Course

Menlo Park, CA. September 10th, 2002 - FabTime Inc. today announced that its cycle time management newsletter had received its thousandth subscriber. The newsletter is a monthly email publication devoted to wafer fab cycle time improvement. It contains articles about how various factors (hot lots, batch loading policy, lot size, etc.) affect fab cycle time and how to mitigate these effects. Each issue also includes a subscriber discussion forum, in which readers raise and address topics related to fab cycle time and performance improvement.

“The subscriber discussion forum has been particularly well-received,” said Jennifer Robinson, Editor of the newsletter. “I think that people in the industry value having a place to share ideas and issues related to fab performance. Recent discussion topics have included starts methodologies, ramp planning, tool dedication, operator staffing levels and cross-qualification policies, and recipe management systems.”

“The first resource I plug my Operations Managers into is the FabTime Newsletter,” said Dan Siems, World-Wide Cycle Time Program Manager for Philips Semiconductor BU Foundries. “Getting a steady infusion of common sense rooted in good theory encourages them to keep their Cycle Time reduction efforts in the foreground of their organizations. FabTime’s Subscriber Discussion Forum gives them real-life examples and strategies for being best in class. Our industry’s cyclical nature requires new thinking – a constant challenging of assumptions – to remain competitive; my OM’s are given exposure to that new thinking by reading FabTime.”

Based on subscriber feedback regarding the value of this information to operations management personnel, FabTime has created a two-day course on cycle time management. More information on this course is available at www.fabtime.com/ctmcourse.htm.

More than 300 companies and universities are represented in the newsletter subscriber list. The companies with the most subscribers are Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX), STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), Philips (NYSE: PHG), Chartered Semiconductor (NASDAQ: CHRT), TECH Semiconductor, Seagate Technology, SEMATECH, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), and National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM). A newsletter subscription form is available at FabTime’s website, www.FabTime.com/newsletter.htm.

About FabTime Inc.

FabTime Inc. is the first company to focus solely on the challenging problem of cycle time management for semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities. Unlike traditional reporting tools, which were designed for industrial engineers and IT specialists, FabTime’s software is designed for hands-on use by fab managers. The company’s website is located at www.FabTime.com.