Mechanical Systems Integrity Management (MSIM) is a program of advanced maintenance management through applied tribology. Philosophically and technically, SPECTRON's approach to maintenance is to identify and control causal factors of friction and wear, rather than to react merely to their effects, i.e., mechanical distress. This concern with cause rather than effect distinguishes MSIM as a program of true preventive maintenance based upon actual condition and need, as opposed to the traditional blind approach of scheduled maintenance based on elapsed operating time.

The data source for this program is the used lubricant from each mechanical system monitored. Contained therein are essentially all the tribologically significant factors which reflect actual conditions of both lubricant and mechanical integrity. To extract these factors from the sampled lubricants , modern and sophisticated analytical techniques are applied: Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry, atomic emission spectroscopy, and oscillation viscometry.