Fairchild Semiconductor Launches Direct Ship Plus; Provides Customers with Increased Supply Flexibility and Minimizes Company Inventory

    SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--March 7, 2002--Fairchild Semiconductor International , the leading global supplier of high performance products for multiple end markets, today introduced Direct Ship Plus(TM). This new inventory program provides customers with a level of supply flexibility not currently available in the industry today. While streamlining the supply chain for customers, this program also enables Fairchild to minimize inventory levels and product warehouse needs.
    Fairchild's Direct Ship Plus program provides an alternative to the typical inventory warehouse system predominantly used in the industry today. Suppliers traditionally manage just-in-time shipping requirements with vendor-managed inventory (VMI) programs at third party logistic service providers (3PLs) or by staging inventory in regional warehouses around the world. This often requires housing the same product in multiple locations or strategically building excess inventory in order to respond to demand and upside requirements from customers. Direct Ship Plus maintains inventory at the manufacturing site rather than at multiple regional warehouses. This enables Fairchild's customers to place a `pull order' from any location worldwide and be assured the product is available and will arrive in three days or less.
    "The Direct Ship Plus program offers our customers the supply flexibility they need in today's market. They have the ability to place a `pull order' for upside demand or to redirect product demand from one manufacturing location to another if they should need to change manufacturing plant locations," said Steve Dixon, Fairchild's vice president of Supply Chain Management. "Fairchild's program makes the entire inventory available in one location so it's easy for us to respond to the demands from our customers."
    Fairchild is currently utilizing the Direct Ship Plus program from its end manufacturing locations in Penang, Malaysia; Cebu, the Philippines; and Bucheon, South Korea. Several major OEM's and contract manufacturers have implemented Direct Ship Plus and Fairchild plans to expand the program among its top-tier customers.

    About Fairchild Semiconductor International:

    Fairchild Semiconductor International is a leading global supplier of high performance products for multiple end markets. With a focus on developing leading edge power and interface solutions to enable the electronics of today and tomorrow, Fairchild's components are used in computing, communications, consumer, industrial, automotive and aerospace applications. Fairchild's 10,000 employees design, manufacture and market power, analog & mixed signal, interface, logic, and optoelectronics products from its headquarters in South Portland, Maine, USA and numerous locations around the world. Please contact us on the web at www.fairchildsemi.com.