What is the difference between preventive and predictive maintenance?

What is the difference between preventive and predictive maintenance?

• A. Preventive maintenance is time-based; predictive maintenance uses condition data to forecast failures and schedule interventions.
• B. Preventive uses condition data; predictive is time-based.
• C. Both identical.
• D. Predictive is manual only.

Answer: (A)

Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance are two ways to decide when to fix or service equipment, but they base that decision on different signals. Preventive maintenance is scheduled on a fixed plan—time-based or usage-based—regardless of how the machine is actually performing. Predictive maintenance uses real condition data from sensors and diagnostics to forecast when a component will fail and to schedule maintenance just before that failure is likely, aiming to intervene only when needed. This option is the best because it clearly contrasts the fixed scheduling of preventive maintenance with the data-driven forecasting of predictive maintenance. The other choices imply that preventive uses condition data or that both approaches are the same, or that predictive requires manual-only actions, which aren’t accurate representations of how these strategies work.

Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance are two ways to decide when to fix or service equipment, but they base that decision on different signals. Preventive maintenance is scheduled on a fixed plan—time-based or usage-based—regardless of how the machine is actually performing. Predictive maintenance uses real condition data from sensors and diagnostics to forecast when a component will fail and to schedule maintenance just before that failure is likely, aiming to intervene only when needed.

This option is the best because it clearly contrasts the fixed scheduling of preventive maintenance with the data-driven forecasting of predictive maintenance. The other choices imply that preventive uses condition data or that both approaches are the same, or that predictive requires manual-only actions, which aren’t accurate representations of how these strategies work.