When a first substrate transferred outwardly from an indexer cell is the last substrate prior to reticle change in an exposure apparatus, the outward transfer of a second substrate to be processed subsequently to the first substrate from the indexer cell is temporarily stopped. After a lapse of time corresponding to reticle replacement time, the outward substrate transfer is restarted, and the second substrate is transferred outwardly from the indexer cell. For the exposure apparatus, the second substrate subjected to a resist coating process is received at the instant when the reticle replacement is completed after the completion of the exposure process of the first substrate. This provides a constant time interval between the completion of the resist coating process of substrates and the execution of the exposure process thereof without the decrease in processing efficiency. As a result, a uniform processing history for the substrates is achieved to further improve the line width uniformity of a pattern.