This paper presents a sequential two-stage strategy for the stochastic synthesis of chemical processes in which flexibility and static operability (the ability to adjust manipulated variables) are taken into account. In the first stage, the optimal flexible structure and optimal oversizing of the process units are determined in order to assure feasibility of design for a fixed degree of flexibility. In the second stage, the structural alternatives and additional manipulative variables are included in the mathematical model in order to introduce additional degrees of freedom for efficient control. The expected value of the objective function is approximated in both stages by a novel method, which relies on optimization at the central basic point (CBP). The latter is determined by a simple set-up procedure based on calculations of the objective function's conditional expectations for uncertain parameters. The feasibility is assured by simultaneous consideration of critical vertices. The important feature of the proposed stochastic model is that its size depends mainly on the number of design variables and not on the number of uncertain parameters. The strategy is illustrated by two examples for heat exchanger network synthesis. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.