This paper deals with the analysis of the fault-tolerant control (FTC) design in the presence of major actuator failures. In the presence of a complete loss of an actuator which is a major failure, the nominal control objectives cannot be reached anymore. Thus, degraded performances are re-defined in order to avoid huge loss in the system security and productivity. The discussion is conducted through the application to a winding machine. This analysis and the fault-tolerant method presented here could be applied to a wider range of industrial systems.