This paper presents the development of a knowledge-based system for the evaluation of industrial equipment in terms of preventive maintenance criticality. A deterministic rating methodology based on the principles of reliability centered maintenance constitutes the logic of the analytical model of the system. The final output generated by the expert system consists of a listing of the pieces of equipment that should receive special consideration for maintenance purposes, along with a description of the possible failure modes arranged by machine component. The system was developed and delivered on an IBM-compatible personal computer through an object-oriented computer shell.