What is a primary benefit of implementing a preventive maintenance (PM) schedule?

• A. Increases reliability, reduces downtime, and extends equipment life.
• B. Increases production costs with no reliability benefit.
• C. Complicates maintenance without improving availability.
• D. Eliminates the need for inspections.

Answer: (A)

Regular preventive maintenance schedules focus on stopping problems before they disrupt production. By planning tasks such as lubrication, part replacement, alignment, and calibrated checks at set intervals, equipment stays in good condition and minor issues are caught early. The main benefit is higher reliability, less unplanned downtime, and longer equipment life because wear and small faults are addressed while they’re still manageable. This approach also helps keep production stable and can reduce total maintenance costs over time by avoiding costly emergency repairs and long outages. The other choices don’t fit because preventive maintenance aims to prevent failures and downtime, not raise costs without benefit or make maintenance harder without improving availability, and inspections remain an integral part of the plan rather than being eliminated.