Been a while since I heard that term. Forgot all about it. I had only heard it while at Disney.
I remember some of the contracted printers trying to give us "production sample" rather than a 1st time pre production sample. That made no sense since sep changes may need to be done to get it 100% where as a print tweak more than likely will not be what is needed. We got out of allowing that. Not the same thing that you're referring to tho.