Even though most die-maker are using CAD/CAM systems rout NC tool-path generation, “front-end”CAD/CAM technologies have not been fully adapted to sculptured surface machining(SSM) nor are sufficiently utilized in die shops. This gap between die-making industry and CAD/CAM community persists mainly because of the lack of a SSM-process model through which the two groups communicate with each other. Proposed in this paper is a model of SSM-processes which is built around the concepts of machining stages, unit machining operations, and each machining stage is decomposed into a sequence of unit machining operations(UMOs). Identified in the paper are five machining stages and 17 types of UMO. Based on the framework of the proposed model, an example of inner-panel stamping-die machining processes is described in detail.