Reverse Blending, an intelligent design and production tool for continuous mass customization

Industrial revolution 4.0 has obtained great success in discrete production (objects...) by de- laying customization in units of production or assembly. Continuous production (granules, liquids...) is the forgotten part of this revolution due to the organization of production based on sequencing batches of different products, which makes challenging the efficient production of a wide variety of products. In response to this, a new product design and manufacturing approach, called Reverse Blending, is proposed to postpone the customization of fertilizers in small blending units implemented close to the final customer. This approach is based on searching for the optimal chemical composition of a reduced number of semi-finished common products whose possible combinations may satisfy a very large variety of customized finished products. This approach allows fertilizer producers - who aim to promote sustainable agriculture by delivering customized products - to make their supply chains smart and sustainable. Its potential is demonstrated through four case studies.

工业革命4.0在离散生产（如对象等）领域取得了巨大成功，通过在生产或组装单元中推迟定制化，实现了这一成就。然而，由于基于不同产品序列批次的生产组织方式，连续生产（如颗粒、液体等）却成为了这一革命中被遗忘的部分，因为这种组织方式使得大量不同产品的有效生产变得极具挑战性。为应对此挑战，提出了一种名为逆向混合的新产品设计和制造方法，旨在将肥料在小型混合单元中的定制化推迟至接近最终客户的地方实施。该方法基于寻找有限数量半成品通用产品的最佳化学组成，这些产品的可能组合可以满足大量定制化最终产品的需求。该方案使得肥料生产商——他们旨在通过提供定制化产品来促进可持续农业的发展——能够使他们的供应链变得更加智能化和可持续。其潜力通过四个案例研究得到了验证。