[sokoloff]

Related to binning, in the 1960s a lot of small piston airplanes used automotive parts (window latches and voltage regulators on my first airplane came from the Ford supply chain) because of the greater volume there.

Voltage regulator was literally the same part. Ford specified statistical process control and sampling inspection was good enough. Cessna demanded that every voltage regulator be tested.

Solution: run the line, test the percentage of parts Ford demanded, stamp the additionally inspected parts with an additional Cessna part number. At the end of the line, if more parts were tested than Cessna needed, so what? Put 'em in a Ford box and ship 'em.

Cessna and Ford each got what they needed, far more cheaply than they could have individually.