I'm broadly aware of the practical reality of how communist countries decided what to produce; five year production plans based on input-output analysis.

I am more interested in the philosophical basis of these production plans. That is, communist ideology has a fairly clear prescription for how goods should be distributed; workers should receive the profits of their labor in accordance with the Labor Theory of Value. But the LTV can't help you decide what the economy as a whole should produce. At best it tells each person to specialize in whatever they are most productive in, but if that's the only criteria for the production plan then it is quite easy for peoples' basic needs not to be met (you could end up with a country of artists, or toothbrush manufacturers). So the question is: Does Communism have some way of basing production decisions on the LTV, or do they have some other system for deciding what an economy should produce? Or did they just not care and produce whatever seemed like a neat idea at the time?

Thanks for any responses.