WESTFORD, MA -- October 16, 2001 -- GenRad, Inc. [NYSE: GEN], a global leader in testing and production solutions, today introduced the companyês latest version of its industry-leading supply chain execution (SCE) software, GR Force/SCE™ at the on-line Supply Chain Link Expo.

–GR Force/SCE uses precise, real-time information to initiate, report, and take action on supply chain activities as they take place,” said Ron Lindell, vice president of Process Solutions at GenRad. –This swift reaction to changing circumstances creates the foundation for a zero-latency enterprise, improving quality and gross margins while reducing time to market and accelerating time to profit.”

As a high performance, high availability collaborative production management system, GR Force/SCE enables –management by exception,” which continually monitors variables in the manufacturing system. If statistical process control or other parameters cross out-of-limit thresholds, key personnel and supply chain event management systems can be automatically notified of the problem so that corrective action is taken. Early notification of process problems helps reduce costs associated with lost production time and wasted inventory.

–Manufacturers are discovering that they can extract efficiencies from the critical •Makeê (manufacturing execution) portion of their supply chain by increasing shop floor visibility and implementing management by exception practices on their shop floor,” said Greg Gorbach, ARC Advisory Groupês Director of e-Manufacturing. –GenRadês GR Force/SCE software is one of a new breed of web-centric supply chain execution solutions that can help discrete manufacturers improve their performance.”

GR Force/SCE easily integrates with other factory and corporate information systems by using industry standard XML interfaces. RosettaNet Partner Interface Processes (PIPês) for Bills-of-Material and As-Built Product Genealogy are supported via simple XML mapping.

To make it easy to analyze data on supply chain operations and integrate GR Force/SCE with business intelligence applications, GR Force/SCE automatically populates a data warehouse with actual manufacturing performance metrics, allowing a variety of on-line analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining tools to be used for analysis.

GR Force/SCE provides the lowest total cost of ownership through a 100% browser based thin-client and a high performance Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application server.

GR Force/SCE software helps discrete manufacturers meet their business objective of minimizing inventory by providing real-time shop floor information to manufacturers and their partners via the Internet. GR Force/SCE also increases manufacturing throughput by identifying production bottlenecks in real-time and it decreases time to market by electronically managing the implementation of engineering changes.

About Supply Chain Link Expo

The Supply Chain Link Expo is a two-day online conference and tradeshow. This free event, October 17-18, is a virtual Web-based tradeshow for manufacturing and supply-chain professionals. For more information, the Web address is www.supplychainlinkexpo.com.

About GenRad, Inc.

GenRad Inc. [NYSE: GEN] is a global leader in electronics testing and production solutions serving the worldês leading original equipment [OEM] and electronics manufacturing services [EMS] markets. GenRadês customers manufacture a wide range of advanced technology products ranging from computer, telecommunications and broadband networking devices to wireless products and enterprise hardware. With 37 offices in 22 countries, GenRad is comprised of four business units, each providing integrated hardware, software and service solutions.

• Process Solutions develops products that enhance and optimize manufacturing processes. The unit's hardware products focus on in-circuit testing, x-ray imaging and rework solutions. Its software products address global supply chain collaboration and execution including Design-to-Build (D2B) software tools.
• 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, and training to help customers optimize their hardware and software solutions.

Founded in 1915, GenRad employs about 1,300 people with worldwide headquarters in Westford, MA, USA. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1978, GenRadês Web address is www.GenRad.com.