The ways in which maintenance will be judged, not only from the availability of the equipment and the costs of maintenance, but also from the overall equipment effectiveness. Availability of spare parts will make a vital contribution to the effectiveness of maintenance, but what level of spare parts can or should be provided?

　　Many factors which will impact on the effectiveness of maintenance throughout the life of the cement factory are determined when the factory is laid out and the equipment is designed. These factors need to be taken into consideration when cement factories are first established as they will never be able to be changed in the future.

　　Cement calcination kilns  must operate for long, continuous campaigns to minimise their thermal energy consumption. In order to do this, their mechanical condition must be regularly assessed and adjusted, if necessary, to prevent long-term damage and the requirement for major repair involving massive loss of time and clinker production. A cement kiln is in fact an assemblage of inter-connected sub-systems which must all operate reliably. The kiln is only as reliable as the weakest of these sub-systems, so the raw meal preparation, kiln feed system, fuel preparation and delivery, clinker cooling and transport and the exhaust gas venting and dedusting systems are all expected to operate for these long campaigns. There will be some overtaking capacity in some of these sub-systems allowing limited time for maintenance, but all will be expected to give reliable performance.

　　What is the role of breakdown, preventive and condition based maintenance in cement factories? How do approaches such as Total Productive Maintenance and Reliability Centred Maintenance apply to cement factories? What changes on the organisation of maintenance and the skills of the maintenance personnel are required to implement these changes in cement factory maintenance philosophy? Computerised maintenance management systems make a vital contribution to these approaches to maintenance and are a prerequisite for the effective maintenance of a modern cement factory.