Which statement about preventive maintenance is accurate?

• A. Predictive maintenance uses data to predict failure and perform only when needed
• B. Maintenance is not planned
• C. Preventive maintenance is time or usage-based
• D. Both are the same

Answer: (C)

Preventive maintenance is about keeping equipment reliable by performing planned upkeep before failures occur. It is based on a schedule tied to time or usage, such as replacing parts after a set number of months or hours of operation. This is why the statement is accurate: preventive maintenance relies on a regular, planned interval to prevent problems. In contrast, predictive maintenance uses data and monitoring to forecast when a failure will happen and acts only when the data indicate an impending issue. Statements that maintenance isn’t planned or that preventive and predictive are the same don’t fit, because preventive is scheduled and distinct from the data-driven forecasting of predictive maintenance.