Ping: Vbe Thompson et al

What sort of parts? I guess tubes would work, since you can get ATE handlers that will do tube-tube sorting. I guess in this case it's not much different than the manufacturer binning parts, though they (theoretically) have more information.

;-)

You can certainly design any way you like. I sometimes go beyond printed specs, or measure parts for things unspecified, and go to production that way. Extreme performance is worth some risk, but parts testing and first-article testing and production testing mitigate risk.

Not all parts meet their published specs anyhow! And lots of parts have bugs and unspecified quirks.

But don't eliminate it. For small quantities it might even work.

That's certainly true. The users of the components don't have a monopoly on mistakes. However, the specs define how the part is intended to be used. Going outside that is an invitation to disaster. I sure don't want to tell the boss we have to recall a million boards because I decided to ignore the manufacturer's specs.