The paper deals with the design of an active fault‐tolerant control strategy based on the supervisory control approach technique for linear time invariant MIMO systems affected by disturbances, measurement noise, and faults. From a bank of Luenberger observers that plays the role of a fault detection and isolation scheme, the supervisory algorithm aims at selecting the suitable fault‐tolerant controller by means of a hysteresis‐based switching mechanism. Based on dwell‐time conditions, Lyapunov global exponential stability is addressed, and it is shown how transient behaviors due to the inherent interactions between fault detection and isolation, fault‐tolerant control, and the reconfiguration mechanism can be improved. The main advantage with respect to existing solutions of open literature is relative to a simple parameterization of all controllers (possibly having different state dimensions, integral action, and/or unstable poles) in order to cope with bumps and undesirable transients when (possible multiple) switches occur. Moreover, it is shown that it is possible to improve (reduce) the dwell‐time value in some cases. The efficiency of the approach is demonstrated on the academic highly maneuverable technology benchmark. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.