Approaches of production planning and control under industry 4.0: A literature review

Abstract

Purpose: Industry 4.0 technologies influence how production is planned, scheduled, and controlled. In literature, different classifications of the tasks and functions of production planning and control (PPC) exist, of which one is the German Aachen PPC model. This research aims to identify and classify current Industry 4.0 approaches for planning and controlling production processes and to reveal researched and unexplored areas of the model.

Design/methodology/approach: In an exploratory literature review, we review and classify 48 publications on a full-text basis with the Aachen PPC model's tasks and functions. Two cluster analyses reveal researched and unexplored tasks and functions of the Aachen PPC model. Additionally, we give a summary of each reviewed publication.

Findings: We propose a cyber-physical PPC architecture, which incorporates current Industry 4.0 technologies, current optimization methods, optimization objectives, and disturbances relevant for realizing a PPC system in a smart factory. Current approaches focus on the in-house PPC, particularly on the control using real-time information from the shop floor. We propose future research directions for the unexplored tasks and functions of the Aachen PPC model.

Research limitations/implications: The selection of search terms and the texts' interpretation is based on an individual assessment. The revelation of unexplored tasks and functions of the Aachen PPC model might have a different outcome if the search term combination is parameterized differently.

Originality/value: Using the Aachen PPC model, which holistically models PPC, the findings give comprehensive insights into the current advances of tools, methods, and challenges relevant to planning and controlling production processes under Industry 4.0.