A method for the bending of a tubular metal article comprising at least the following steps a) determining a bending sequence of the tubular metal article by means of a calculating unit, and b) bending the tubular metal article according to the bending sequence determined during the execution of the step a) is described. During the step a) at least the following sub-steps are performed by the calculating unit: a1) defining an initial configuration and a final configuration of the tubular metal article which differs from the initial configuration by a number N of bends, a2) determining one or more explorative bending sequences as a function of the initial configuration and the final configuration, each explorative bending sequence having a cost and a3) proposing at least one or more explorative bending sequences having minimal costs as the determined bending sequence.