Which type of maintenance is performed to prevent failures by replacing components before they fail?

• A. Reactive maintenance
• B. Predictive maintenance
• C. Preventive maintenance
• D. Corrective maintenance

Answer: (C)

Preventive maintenance is the planned, scheduled work you do to replace or service components before they fail, so you avoid unexpected downtime and extend equipment life. This directly matches replacing parts before failure to prevent failures in the first place. In contrast, reactive maintenance happens after something breaks, predictive maintenance uses condition monitoring data to forecast when a failure will occur and plan intervention accordingly, and corrective maintenance is the repair performed after a failure has already happened.