A method and a device for producing a tear line in a vehicle interior trim part, in which a laser beam is guided along a tear line and a material ablation in the form of holes with a residual wall thickness is effected. On the side facing the laser beam, the complete extent of the tear line is detected by a stationary matrix camera. In the machining at a machining site, only pixels of a CMOS matrix camera that are known in advance, for which the incidence of a measurement radiation is expected at this machining site, are read out. The laser is preferably scanned and non-adjacent machining sites are machined successively.