What is preventive maintenance (PM)?

What is preventive maintenance (PM)?

• A. Scheduled maintenance designed to prevent equipment failures and ensure reliability.
• B. Maintenance based on real-time data to trigger actions.
• C. A safety device preventing unintended movement.
• D. A plan to route trains.

Answer: (A)

Preventive maintenance is scheduled maintenance designed to prevent equipment failures and ensure reliability. It involves planned inspections, adjustments, lubrication, part replacements, and tests at predefined intervals or after a certain amount of use, before a fault shows up. This proactive approach aims to keep equipment operating safely and efficiently and to reduce unexpected downtime. That’s why the described option is the best fit: it emphasizes planned, routine work performed to prevent failures and maintain reliability. Other ideas described here point to different maintenance philosophies—using real-time data to trigger actions (condition-based maintenance), a safety device, or a routing plan—which aren’t preventive maintenance.

Preventive maintenance is scheduled maintenance designed to prevent equipment failures and ensure reliability. It involves planned inspections, adjustments, lubrication, part replacements, and tests at predefined intervals or after a certain amount of use, before a fault shows up. This proactive approach aims to keep equipment operating safely and efficiently and to reduce unexpected downtime.

That’s why the described option is the best fit: it emphasizes planned, routine work performed to prevent failures and maintain reliability. Other ideas described here point to different maintenance philosophies—using real-time data to trigger actions (condition-based maintenance), a safety device, or a routing plan—which aren’t preventive maintenance.