Traditionally, control configuration selection and controller design of MIMO systems are done using input/output information of direct loop while outputs of undesired or interactive loops go un-noticed that bears information on interactions. This paper describes the state of art in integration of manipulated variable and controlled variable by selecting an appropriate control configuration among the loops in MIMO systems using interactive responses. It is difficult to quantify the interactions among the control loops as the disturbance propagates from one loop to other loops and vice versa. This paper provides a technique to assess the control loop interactions and rank the loops accordingly. A novel method based on the comparison of areas of the undesirable responses has been proposed to calculate the interactions among the loops and subsequently input-output pairing. Simulation and experimental results shows the validity of the proposed methods. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.