The German interest in precision ultimately cost them a lot. The German tanks, for instance, had machined welds and were very carefully constructed. They were able to produce only 1500 of one common model.

The Russian T-34 was produced very solidly and were functional, but the welds weren't polished and everything was put together just well enough. They made 60,000 of them.

Not only that, but the crews met the tanks at the factory east of the Urals, rode with them on trains to the front and drove them straight into battle. Despite claims that capitalism is the ultimate production system and the profit motive the ultimate motivator, Stalin seemed to get incredible results by informing the factory managers that they would be summarily shot if they didn't meet goals. Seemed to work well, given that an incredible number of normal production workers, men and women, were in the army and mainly the dregs left to make things.

The same was true of their Sturmovik Il-2 airplane, a superb design for it's mission of which the USSR produced over 42,000, the most produced military plane in history. The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front.

"Joseph Stalin paid the Il-2 a great tribute in his own inimitable manner: when a particular production factory fell behind on its deliveries, Stalin sent an angrily-worded cable to the factory manager, stating "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."[5] "I demand more machines. This is my final warning!"[6]" In this case the factory manager was left to guess what "final warning" meant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2