1. A method of reducing a finite control automaton, which comprises: modeling each of a plurality of primary automata (G 1... G n ) in a primary discrete event system (DES) containing system components selected from the group consisting of an event alphabet (&Sgr;) with a plurality of events (&sgr;∈&Sgr;), a state space (Q) with a plurality of states (q∈Q), an initial state (q 0 ), state transitions (&dgr;), and selfloops (&dgr;(q,&sgr;)&equals;q); calculating a synchronous product (G&equals;G 1 ×... ×G n ) of the primary automata to obtain a combined discrete event system (DES G); defining, in the combined discrete event system (DES G), states (Q) with relevance in deciding whether a given event is allowed or forbidden and defining states without relevance; removing the states without relevance and forming a partition (C) of the state space (Q) containing the states with relevance; and eliminating all redundant state transitions and forming a reduced discrete event system (DES G″).