Come to think about it, it is now possible to research on quality levels of goods.
When you research something it automaticly (without cost) goes into production, if possible..
Wouldnt it make the simulator more accurate if quality was implemented something like following:
Once a new quality-research project has been completed, every affected industry would have to be upgraded with the new technology, similar to the current "upgrade", in order to be able to manifacture anything of the new quality level.
New industries automaticly utilizes the new quality level - but cost on building a new industry would go up, since the production machines would be more advanced/sofisticated
Why the upgrade-thought? Well its pretty obvious that knowing about a new technology doesnt really make anything change - it quite simply does cost mulah($$) to implement new ways of doing things.
Why higher cost on new industries? New industries naturally needs more advanced equipment than the old one's.