The invention relates to a method and a device for controlling a production cell for producing plastic injection-moulded parts, according to which the production cycle is defined and parameterised by the user. The invention is based on a component-oriented control system. Components can be, for example, the mould closure, the injection unit, the core puller, the handling appliances etc., which are virtually formed in the control system. According to the invention, machine cycles are designed, managed and run on the basis of behaviourally complete components, together forming a domain model, by means of a specialised domain language. In this way, an injection-moulding machine can be used and operated in a universal and simple manner. The components appear on the display screen or operating surface and are used by the user as the basis for the modelling of any cycles. Furthermore, a domain language is used for each problem area in the control system, in order to describe solutions and to automatically generate the program code therefrom.