This paper presents an innovative approach for obtaining the distribution of temperature in the dies during thermo-mechanical numerical analysis of metal forming problems. The proposed approach is based on a solution resulting from the combination of the finite-element method with the boundary-element method. The finite-element method is used to perform the thermo-viscoplastic modelling of the deforming workpiece, while the boundary-element method is applied for computing the distribution of temperature in the dies. Heat transfer between the dies and the workpiece, is analysed using the finite-element solution of the heat flow across the die-workpiece interface to define the boundary conditions to be applied on the thermal analysis of the dies. The transfer of boundary conditions is performed using an adaptive boundary-element generator that continuously redefines the elements limiting the contour of the dies in the contact interface with the deforming workpiece. A numerical example consisting of the axisymmetric thermo-mechanical modelling of an industrial closed-die forging operation is included to show the applicability of the proposed approach.