In this paper, a finite element approach to analyzing a deep piercing process is presented. In the approach, the element deletion scheme after the element degradation scheme is employed to predict the piercing phenomenon because the time interval between the piercing initiation time and the final stroke is quite large. The normalized Cockcroft-Latham damage model is used and an assumed flow stress smoothing function is used to reflect the effect of cumulative damage on the flow stress. The approach is applied to a deep piercing process and the predictions are compared with experiments in terms of plastic deformation of the whole process. The comparison shows a good agreement with each other.