This work presents the results of a simulation study aimed at characterizing the relationship of spare parts inventory policies with Total Cost of Ownership of industrial plants. The study is motivated by the expectation that several spare parts management decisions cause important effects in the long-term profitability of industrial assets. Such decisions may regard, amongst the others, the initial provisioning, the inventory policy and the end-of-life acquisition. This work adopts simulation to test a specific spare parts inventory policy, i.e. a continuous review system, with the final purpose to assess its effects on the operational performance of an industrial comminution plant and, consequently, on its Total Cost of Ownership.(C) 2016 IFAC (Internantional federation of Automatic Control ) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.