Issues in the development of improvement tools for environmental design of complex products

This paper analyses the development stage of improvement tools for complex products, in particular electronics. It elaborates a few issues facing the further development and application of such tools. Example improvement tools are described along with experiences from their practical application. The comparative analysis of these example tools is than used to illustrate obvious strengths and weaknesses of the present generation of product improvement tools. Experiences with process improvement tools and less complex products are used to discuss directions for the further development of improvement tools which could solve these limitations.