The planning and control environment: Internet assignment The Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-I) is an international consortium of companies, consultancies, and academics that have elected to work cooperatively in a precompetitive environment to solve problems common to the group. Its sole purpose is to support member companies in their quest for excellence in today's highly competitive global marketplace. This case requires you to use the CAM-I website at www.cam-i.org to complete the following requirements.
Assume that a start-up manufacturing company has recently hired you, and your first task is to develop a cost planning and control environment for the firm.

Required:

a. Review CAM-I's executive overview. Summarize the history of the organization and describe how CAM-I's "participative model" produces value for its members.

b. Read CAM-I's most recent annual report to members. Prepare a one-page summary emphasizing important accomplishments described in the letter from the president and the interest group highlights.

c. Read CAM-I's value proposition, and review its membership options (corporate, smaller, and subscription based). Choose a membership option that you expect will be beneficial, and write a memo to your new supervisor describing your rationale to justify the cost of joining this organization.

d. Review CAM-I's online bookstore. Identify two items from the list of publictions that would help you with your new responsibility. Explain your choices.

e. Review CAM-I's wiki. Read the main-page overview of CAM-I's Cost Management Systems (CMS) interest group; then choose one of the related topics presented in the topics list, and write a brief summary of your findings. How will the use of wiki technology enable collaboration and growth of this content?