Great Southern Consultants Group's Computer System Has Been Down Several

Essay

Great Southern Consultants Group's computer system has been down several times over the past few months, as shown below.
$$\begin{array} { | l | l | l | l | l | l | } \hline \text { Number of breakdowns } & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\\hline \text { Monthly frequency } & 9 & 2 & 4 & 4 & 1 \\\hline\end{array}$$
Each time the system is down, the firm loses an average of $400 in time and service expenses. They are considering signing a contract for preventive maintenance. With preventive maintenance, the system would be down on average only 0.5 per month. The monthly cost of preventive maintenance would be $200 a month. Which is cheaper, breakdown or preventive maintenance?