Which maintenance type uses condition-monitoring data to predict when a component will fail?

• A. Predictive Maintenance
• B. Preventative Maintenance
• C. Corrective Maintenance
• D. Reliability Centered Maintenance

Answer: (A)

This question hinges on using data from real-time or recent observations to forecast when a component will fail and schedule maintenance just before that happens. That approach is the essence of predictive maintenance: you monitor conditions—like vibration, temperature, oil quality, wear measurements—and use those signals to estimate remaining useful life and trigger a service before a failure occurs.

Preventative maintenance, by contrast, follows a fixed schedule or usage-based interval without regard to current condition. Corrective maintenance is performed after a failure has occurred. Reliability Centered Maintenance is a broader decision framework for selecting maintenance tasks to ensure system function, which can include predictive elements but isn’t defined by using condition data to predict failures.