Final answer:
The maintenance staff should schedule the replacement of the machine component after it has been in use for approximately 4,000 hours.
Step-by-step explanation:
In this case, the manufacturer states that the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of the machine component is 4,000 hours. MTBF is a measure of the reliability of a component, representing the average time between failures. To schedule the replacement of the component, the maintenance staff should consider the MTBF as the expected lifetime of the component.
Therefore, the maintenance staff should schedule the replacement of the component after it has been in use for approximately 4,000 hours.