MUNICH, Germany -- November 27, 2000 -- GenRad Inc. [NYSE: GEN], a leading producer of advanced performance-assurance products for electronics manufacturers, today announced that CS Electronics, the French contract manufacturer, will install the industry standard for electronics manufacturing, GenRad's CIMBridge 3.7, at its Honfleur, France, facility.

"CIMBridge helps electronics contract manufacturers like CS Electronics and original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] improve their time-to-market, time-to-volume and quality challenges by increasing their control over the manufacturing process and improving the productivity of their best-in-class equipment," said Ron Lindell, Vice President of GenRad's Process Solutions line of business.

"One of the reasons for acquiring the CIMBridge software solution and locating our production facilities in France is to speed up the time-to-market of our customers," stated M. Luc Petitjean, CS Electronics' General Director.

"The challenge for us is to have very short production launching and ramp-up for high tech products such as telecom products. Adaptability to change is essential with fierce competition reducing the viable commercial lifetimes of successive product generation," M. Petitjean added. "Optimization of purchasing, inventory, manufacturing and logistics are critical to our success, and investments in high-precision and flexible surface-mount technology, and in GenRad's CIMBridge version 3.7 are key component in this whole process. The production advantages provided by CIMBridge and cost-effective SMT solutions -coupled with our close proximity to customers and major transportation and shipping centers - gives us an advantage over manufacturers in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Far East."

CS Electronics is one of France's most successful contract electronics manufacturers. With Sþcrþ Alpine Electronics, a CEM located in Soissons, France -a joint-venture between CS and Alpine - they serve telecommunication, automotive and security industries. Notable among their customers are France Telecom, Telefonica, Sony, Mercedes Benz, Renault and Chrysler. The CS group operates three divisions and employ over 5,000 people.

CIMBridge 3.7 will give CS Electronics over 60 customer-driven product enhancements, among them an enhanced line balancer for multiple products and a new set-up changeover report utility. These enhancements appear in an integrated design geared toward reducing the time required to set up and build new products on electronics manufacturing lines.

"Our CIMBridge 3.7 will make CS Electronics more productive, more cost-effective and more competitive," said Lindell. "This is the most technologically advanced process optimisation tool in the industry. CS Electronics will soon have the tool that will take them from having best of class equipment to best of class assembly process. Their new CIMBridge 3.7 will allow them to achieve the balanced optimized line that is critical to meeting their demanding production schedules."

CIMBridge 3.7 provides a suite of software tools for optimizing production line planning. GenRad has implemented over 60 customer driven enhancements including Line Balancing for Multiple Products, an optimizer for GEM line of Philips EMT and for GSM of Universal as well as new machine program generators.

About GenRad

GenRad Inc. [NYSE: GEN] is a global leader of electronics manufacturing productivity solutions for contract and original equipment manufacturers [OEM] of handheld and wireless devices, PCs and business servers, DSL and other broadband switching and routing technologies, and other devices integral to emerging Internet e-commerce markets. GenRad also applies its technologies to development of diagnostic solutions for the automotive and general transportation industry.

GenRad is comprised of four lines of business bringing to market integrated hardware, software and service solutions that empower always-on services and un-interruptable business applications:

• Process Solutions focuses on in-circuit test, x-ray test, and re-work solutions as well as plant and line management solutions for electronic product manufacturers.
• Functional Solutions focuses on functional test platforms for manufacturers of telecommunications, computers and automotive electronics.
• Diagnostic Solutions focuses on service bay and manufacturing solutions for transportation OEMs and independent service providers.
• Support and Services focuses on maintenance programs, on-site and remote support, programming services, and training to help customers optimize their hardware and software solutions.

Founded in 1915, GenRad employs approximately 1,400 people and maintains its worldwide headquarters in Westford, MA, USA. The company's Web address is http://www.genrad.com.