Which Statement Best Describes Preventive Maintenance?

• A. It Is Performed On A Schedule To Prevent Failures
• B. It Relies On Live Sensor Readings To Trigger Actions
• C. It Analyzes Past Failure Data To Forecast Future Failures
• D. It Occurs Only After A Failure

Answer: (A)

Preventive maintenance is maintenance performed on a schedule to prevent failures. It involves planned inspections, adjustments, lubrication, part replacements, and other routine tasks at defined intervals, regardless of whether a problem is currently evident. By doing this, wear and tear are managed before they cause an outage, helping to keep equipment reliable and uptime high. This scheduled, proactive approach distinguishes it from other strategies that wait for signals or events. For example, relying on live sensor readings to trigger actions describes a condition-based or predictive approach, while analyzing past failure data to forecast futures is predictive maintenance. Performing maintenance only after something breaks is reactive maintenance.