The Value of AIMM!

This podcast is for all IAQG members to learn more about AIMM, the Aerospace Information Maturity Model.

We spoke to the lead for AIMM, Roberto Ciaschi.  He clearly defines AIMM and shares the value, features benefits and usefulness AIMM brings to companies while also highlighting its importance and necessity within the aerospace and defense industry. 

We address questions about the safety and security of organizational information and the continuing improvements being made to its 26 modules.

Enjoy the podcast and share it with your co-workers and colleagues.

The IAQG is the International Aerospace Quality Group and sets the standard for quality within the worldwide supply chain within the aviation, space, and defense industry. IAQG currently maintains 26 active standards that establish common/shared tools and methods for quality improvement. To learn more, visit https://iaqg.org.  

Transcript

The Quality Horizon – The Value of AIMM 

[00:00:00]  

Susan: Greetings, everyone. Welcome. Today, I am with team leader for AIMM, Roberto Ciaschi. AIM stands for Aerospace Maturity Model and is the latest tool for the industry provided by the IAQG. Welcome, Roberto.  

Roberto: Thank you.  

Susan: Thank you. First things first, we would like to know from the audience and for those that aren't familiar with AIMM, What is it?  

Roberto: AIMM is a tool to manage your willingness to improve your organization. It is a model which is based on the 9100 standard, and which is comprises a set of respective outputs derived from 9100 standards, and five levels of [00:01:00] maturity in implementing these outputs. And the criteria to judge which level you have reached for each output. So this is, in a nutshell, is what is the AIMM model.  

Susan: So, what prompted it? Why do we have it in the first place?  

Roberto: Continual improvement is a matter of life for good quality organizations. And it is embedded within the 9100 standard, ISO 1001. They require the organization to improve continually, but they do not provide specific tools to manage this improvement. So AIMM is for the organization which want to go beyond the simple compliance to the 9100 standard and they want to have a a system, a method to measure improvement. 

Roberto: So if you can measure where you are in terms of maturity, you can you can set targets [00:02:00] to improve. And this creates a bit more motivation if you know where you are and you can see that you are improving on a scale a progressive scale of levels. So this is allows a better recognition of the improvement and therefore better motivation to, to improve. 

Susan: And can anyone use this? Is it just for the aerospace industry? Is it before you are first audited for 9100? Or? So when does someone use this?  

Roberto: So first, by which organization? It is based on the 9100 standard. So it is a bit challenging. So there are, an organization should have at least a quality management system. Compliant to ISO 1001 and still it would find challenging in some areas which are the additional requirement introduced by 9100 with respect to ISO 1001[00:03:00]. So it's for organization, which that have a manufacturing and design, and at least compliant, as I said with ISO 1001. They do not necessarily to be certified. 

Roberto: It's also it's very useful tool in preparation to the certification. Can be used as a way of self assessing the, the level and the extent of deployment of the QMS. Therefore, it's a good tool for preparing.  

Susan: Now, you talked about that there were 26 modules, five levels. For someone, obviously, to get the full breadth of it, use all. But do you have to is it long? Is it complex? Is 26 sounds like a lot.  

Roberto: It is, it is the entire standard. It is not necessary at all. to do the all models at once. The modules are [00:04:00] independent. They are self contained. So it's, it's been conceived to be used as needed by the organization. They should start from the highest priority modules. 

Roberto: Those more useful to the success of the organization. Or sometimes also, why not, the low hanging fruits. Where they can get some quick results. And maybe to leave the most challenging one later on.  

Susan: So when someone is taking it, what is the process? Do they log into a website? Is the member company? Does the company do it? 

Susan: Is it an individual person that does it? How does the site and AIMM, the tool, how is it used?  

Roberto: Okay. It's important to say that AIMM is a model. Which means a set of criteria, as I mentioned before, mapped on the levels and the expected outcomes. And [00:05:00] it's also an application, an online application, to perform the assessment. 

Roberto: When an organization decides to perform an assessment, they can be done by one person or by a team. And there is a, the AIMM user guide, which provides a good suggestions on how to perform an assessment, how to organize it. And this is freely available on the AIMM website. So then when it is decided to perform an assessment, there should be a decision of the scope of the assessment, which models, which target and who is going to do what. And then the tool is able to support the performance of the assessment, the display of the result, the data are sold there and it's possible for the organization to go back to previous assessment and to update it.  

Susan: So an assessment is done and they retrieve their data, [00:06:00] and determine where they are in their improvement. They can go back and essentially compare it at a later date?  

Roberto: Yes, they can go back to perform another assessment. Normally, you make an assessment, you identify areas of improvement, the improvement actions are agreed, implemented, and there is a reassessment. 

Roberto: The, then they would compare on the certain module, which level did you achieve on the previous assessment? And in the reassessment, whether you obtain any improvement. Actually, we are planning to implement this this function of comparing the assessment result from an assessment to another in a future release of the tool. 

Susan: That's wonderful. So we've already talked about some of the things in the future, but let's talk about the feedback. So this has been out since August?  

Roberto: August last year. So not quite a year.  

Susan: Oh, [00:07:00] a bit more than one year. So it's been out for about a year. What have people been saying about it?  

Roberto: Yeah, we received a lot of feedback. We presented in our meetings some testimonials from some users and the investors, there was for instance Boeing reporting that they had used aim for almost 40 sites, which was quite a, an exciting feedback for us because our very young tool, which was mainly designed to support a single assessment by an organization was using a such an extensive way. 

Roberto: And we got ideas, additional ideas. For instance, from this power used to create new functions for rolling up the assessment result from various sites at higher level to make a synthesis at a corporate level. And in general, we got feedback, very positive feedback, that it is useful to identify areas of improvement. It is easy to use. [00:08:00] And it is we are really looking for feedback to improve the features to make it more and more useful.  

Susan: You've gotten some wonderful feedback. I'm assuming there are still some folks that might be skeptical. I'm guessing there's a lot of security questions coming about. So what do we, how do we ease that? How do we tell people that this module is for them? And what are those ways to dispel that misinformation, that security is a problem?  

Roberto: Okay. So, security is a big concern.  

Susan: Sure 

Roberto: So we received questions like can other users see the results, the data I enter, or can IAQG see my, my data? And where are the data stored? 

Roberto: We have answers for all this. And AIMM [00:09:00] has been conceived and designed with a high level of data protection. So it is obviously not possible for any users to see the data of other users. And it is not possible for IAQG either to see the user enter data. But in theory, it could be possible for the system developer. 

Roberto: They have the code and they have the database. So for this reason, we have implemented an additional level of encryption a passphrase. So adopting this passphrase, it is impossible also for a system developer to see the user data. Of course, there is a drawback. If you lose the passphrase, nobody will be able to retrieve your data. 

Roberto: And also where the data are stored, they are stored on IAQG dedicated servers in administered by the Jasper Interactive. [00:10:00] The developing the different system developer in the U.S. so they, they're not somewhere in the cloud. And all of the IAQG applications are on this on this servers in addition to this, to really try to alleviate to the mass amount, extent this concerns. 

Roberto: In the next phase, we are considering implementing a local data storage, so the user would perform the assessment online and at the end, could decide do I store them online or shall I download on my local machine and to remove them online. So this should be possible in in the future release of the application. So definitely data’s, data are well protected and they can be removed by the system at any time [00:11:00], and there will be any traits of that as ultimate solution.  

Susan: I bet that has really quelled a lot of fear. in many companies. So how many, I was reading a statistic and I think this is quite dated even a couple months ago, 72 countries or 72 companies have already used this, but I'm assuming it's well more than that. Now, do you have any statistics to share?  

Roberto: Yes, of course. There are visitors, the website from 78 countries. For us, there are metrics about visitors, number of sessions. It's very important the number of registered users. So we have now 2,200 registered users. So we had a target of about 1000, so we have already doubled our target. 

Roberto: But now, looking at our potential user reservoir, [00:12:00] we look at the organization certified to 9100, and there are more than 20,000. So this is, for us, is the end target. That's all certified organizations to use AIMM, at least 50 percent of them.  

Susan: You've got a nice number to still get out there and talk to people. So what's the first step? Where do people go to get to AIM? Where do they get the module?  

Roberto: They go on the IAQG website. They click on the AIMM link and they get to the AIMM application.  

Susan: And on that area, that application is there information on how to use it? Is there webinars or guides or tools and things? Is that all available to people? 

Roberto: Absolutely, on the, you would find a menu, information support documentation with the introductory presentation user guide, FAQs, very extensive FAQs [00:13:00] coming from real questions raised during webinars. Also, these webinars are accessible, and all this without even before registering. 

Susan: So, you don't have to register to, to get access to that information?  

Roberto: You can read it and after you decide whether you want to register or not.  

Susan: Wonderful. So, is there anything, any other points of value that we want to tell people who aren't as familiar with AIMM or maybe you're deciding whether they should do it or not do it, not use the application? What would you say to those?  

Roberto: Something special about AIMM is that there are other maturity models, but they are really complicated. And you need a qualified assessors to make an assessment. AIMM is very simple. You don't need to be a qualified assessor, an expert. It has been designed for performing a safe assessment [00:14:00] and for is an internal auditor. 

Roberto: A normal auditor would immediately get to use it without any difficulty. And also I think the beauty of AIMM is that very transparent. It's not a black box where you put something, you get some results without understanding how it works. It is the rules for calculating the levels are very very easy to understand and there are dashboards in the application to, to show where you are and the progress you are or the work you are doing. 

Susan: It's very much a check and balance before the real audit happens or even after the audit happens. So it's a wonderful tool. I think it could provide real value for anybody looking to use it.  

Roberto: We think so. And we hope that this will be confirmed by the real users. [00:15:00] And we always insist on please give your feedback, positive, negative, constructive, and then we are going to use it to improve that. 

Susan: That's wonderful. Thank you, Roberto. It's been great to talk to you about AIMM and Learn more about the application for those that are looking to find AIMM, you can go to AIM.IAQG.org or you can go to the IAQG website, IAQG.org and click on the AIMM button right at the top. So thank you again. Happy to have you. Happy to learn.  

Roberto: Thank you.  

Susan: This is Susan Matson and you've been listening to the IAQG Quality Horizon. Until next time, stay safe all.