Quality and quantity

Quantity has a quality of its own- Joseph Stalin
The T-34 was the tank which symbolized the victory of quantity over quality.It was the most produced tank of the war(over 40000 units)and was instrumental in the Soviet victory. Stalingrad, Kursk,Berlin everywhere the tank got the better of its german coyunterparts due to sheer numbers. Incidentally, in 1941, it was the best tank in the world . At the time of operation Barbarossa, a German commmander said "We had nothing comparable". But while the german army introduced new and better versions of tanks like the panzers and the tigers, the Russian relied mostly on this tank and concentratedon production.
The Russian tank factories had to be shifted part by part to the Urals where the so-called "tanko-"grad was built. In one of the biggest production miracles, the Russian cut the production cost from 269,000 roubles to 135,000 roubles in 2 years. The tank production time declined by half in the same period. The tank factory was earlier run by skilled workers. Due to war, the workforce composition became 50% hitherto unskilled women, 15%boys,15% elderly males and 20% skilled workers. In 1941, the Russians had better tanks but Germany was winning.In 1943, the Germans had better tanks but Russia was winning.The Russian victory was the victory of quantity(man and weapons) over quality(man and weapons).
Is the strategy still applicable today. Not only in war but more importantly in business. Is it a better thing to improve productivity or to introduce new products? I think productivity still wins over products.