SMIE is less common that LMIE and much less common that other failure mechanisms such as hydrogen embrittlement, fatigue, and stress-corrosion cracking. Still, embrittlement mechanisms can be introduced during fabrication, coatings, testing or during service of the material components. Susceptibility for SMIE increases with the following material characteristics: 
* Increase in strength of high-strength material
* Increasing grain size
* Materials with more planar-slip than wavy-slip