In a bending apparatus which moves one of upper and lower tables (9, 10), and performs bending on a workpiece (W) by tools (P, D) attached to the upper and lower tables (9, 10), a tool group including a plurality of split tools is transferred to the upper and lower table (9, 10), a plurality of process stations are formed by splitting the transferred tool into a plurality of tool groups based on automatically or manually determined tool-layout information, and then bending is carried out.