Exploring capabilities enabled by smart industrial products: a framework for fully autonomous production planning and control

Purpose – This study aims to structure and understand the capabilities enabled by smart industrial products (SIPs) within the production planning and control (PPC) function. It seeks to provide a hierarchical framework that supports the strategic integration of SIPs to achieve full autonomy in PPC. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method approach was applied, combining a systematic literature review (SLR), expert validation, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification analysis, and 12 SIP-enabled capabilities were identified, validated and analyzed to reveal their interrelationships and hierarchical structure. Findings – The study proposes a four-level framework – connected, transparent, autonomous decision-making I and autonomous decision-making II – that captures the layered buildup of SIP-enabled capabilities toward PPC autonomy. Foundational capabilities enable higher-order capabilities, providing organizations with a roadmap for prioritizing investments and improving operational performance. Originality/value – This is the first study to propose a structured, hierarchical model of SIP-enabled capabilities in PPC. It contributes to both theory and practice by clarifying capability dependencies and offering a roadmap for achieving autonomous PPC through targeted SIP adoption.