The objective of maintenance and reliability is to

A) ensure that breakdowns do not affect the quality of the products.
B) ensure that no breakdowns will ever occur.
C) ensure that preventive maintenance costs are kept as low as possible.
D) maintain the capability of the system.
E) ensure that maintenance employees are fully utilized.

The objective of maintenance and reliability is to maintain the capability of the system. This means ensuring that the system operates reliably and efficiently, minimizing downtime and ensuring that it can meet its intended purpose. While preventing breakdowns is important, it is not always possible to prevent them entirely. Therefore, the focus is on maintaining the system's capability despite any potential breakdowns. Ensuring that preventive maintenance costs are kept as low as possible and that maintenance employees are utilized is important but are secondary objectives to maintaining the capability of the system.