EFTC slashes prototype turn time from six weeks down to five, ten or 15 days at fixed price.

GREELEY, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 1997--

New Total Solution Prototype Services(TM) Eliminates Time-Consuming Quote Process, Provides OEMs With Significant Time-To-Market and

Start-Up Cost Advantages

Electronic Fab Technology Corp. (NASDAQ/NMS:EFTC), today announced its new Total Solution Prototype Services(TM) (TSPS(TM)) operation that reduces prototype design and fabrication turnaround time down to five, ten or fifteen days. The current average turnkey cycle time for EMS providers is three to eight weeks.

EFTC's TSPS is the industry's first turnkey prototype service to establish a fixed-price manufacturing matrix which determines the price of a prototype printed circuit board (PCB) based on design complexity. By eliminating time which would be spent processing labor and material quotations, EFTC can produce a fully tested PCB from the customer's bill of materials and schematics in either five, ten, or fifteen days based on customer preference.

EFTC established TSPS to help OEMs reduce design costs, simplify the transition from design to production builds, reduce production start-up costs and shorten time-to-market. These advantages are especially important for OEMs with large research and development (R&D) departments.

Tammy Jenkins, TSPS manager for EFTC, said, "It's not unusual for a large OEM to spend $500,000 a month on R&D. When a company stands to lose close to a million dollars while their engineers sit idle waiting for a prototype, the time and money they save using our premium TSPS service can be very significant." Jack Calderon, president and CEO of EFTC, said, "We recognized our customers' need for quick-turn prototype production services, and quickly moved to provide this sorely-needed capability. This was especially true for high-mix customers which are often underserved by high-volume suppliers."

EFTC's TSPS program enables the company to provide instant quotes on the development and manufacturing costs of prototype PCBs (printed circuit boards) because of a unique Master Partnership Agreement (MPA) program which reduces cycle time and eliminates the need to source and price individual materials and components, and also significantly reduces component delivery and PCBA fabrication times.

The MPAs award selected suppliers "lifetime" sole-source status as long as pricing and delivery remain competitive. Consequently, MPA distributors package and deliver available materials within two days after reviewing a parts list which is electronically transmitted over EFTC's new Just-In-Time/Bulletin Board System (JIT/BBS). MPA raw board manufacturers also refer to the JIT/BBS to schedule production and deliver the raw fab PCB within another two days. The result is a minimum five-day turn time from order to delivery.

Under the new TSPS program, EFTC has established MPA agreements with Marshall Industries (city) to supply quick turns on components and with Sigma Circuits, Inc. (city) for printed circuit boards. Sigma Circuits also has PCB production facilities to support prototype-to-production transitions.

In addition, EFTC has established a closely-coupled volume assembly link to its TSPS services. Products can move from the dedicated TSPS prototype production facilities into high-mix volume production on the company's Asynchronous Process Manufacturing (APM(TM)) lines. APM is a unique new high-mix, high-speed manufacturing model that utilizes the company's fast Fuji SMT systems and wide-pipe, high-velocity production lines. A hybrid of Continuous Flow Manufacturing and batch production techniques, APM sets standard processes that allow any board to travel any line.

APM increases throughput by decreasing set-up time. This is accomplished by designating teams to set up off-line feeders, by standardizing loading methods regardless of product complexity, and most important, by motivating employees and training them in JIT (Just-in-Time) modes instead of simply keeping them busy during downtimes. Last year the company won awards in four out of five categories for large-size companies in the "1996 Service Excellence Awards for Contract Manufacturers" sponsored by Technology Forecasters, Inc. (a Berkeley, CA-based research firm) and Circuits Assembly magazine.

Recently, EFTC signed a letter of intent to acquire through a purchase/merger agreement, Current Electronics, Inc., a privately-held $33 million contract manufacturer with operations in Oregon and Washington state.

Electronic Fab Technology Corp., founded in 1981, is a $50 million provider of high-mix electronic manufacturing services to OEMs in the medical, instrumentation, storage, and communications industries. EFTC provides design-for-manufacturing engineering services, quick-turn prototype services, circuit board assembly, and final box build from two Colorado facilitiess, occupying a total of 100,000 square feet. The company is located at 7251 West 4th Street, Greeley, Colorado 80634-9763, phone [phone], fax [phone]. -0-

NOTE: Asynchronous Process Manufacturing, APM, Total Solution

Prototype Services, and TSPS are trademarks of Electronic Fab

Technology Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their

respective companies.

CONTACT: EFTC: Jack Calderon, 970/353-3100

E-mail: [e-mail]

Peak Public Relations: Mike Peak, 408/446-0407

E-mail: [e-mail]