I gotta business to run!

I'm a businessman.  I've been given the exclusive right to produce and distribute toothpaste in a 5 square mile area, for all 6,000 men, women and children.  No one else can sell toothpaste in my district, although you can mix your own ingredients and use a homemade product if you wish.

I can make toothpaste any way I want, as long as it is safe and effective.  Effectiveness is measured annually by a state-administered, standard dental exam for everyone I serve.  The cumulative results of this exam are published, and my customers with the worse teeth are entitled to extra care at my expense.  So I can control production, but how the consumer uses my product I have no control over.

This isn't fair, but I live with it.  Some of my customers really value their dental health - they demand an effective product because they want clean teeth and healthy gums.  And they insist that it tastes good - they actually seem to believe that if it doesn't taste good it's not working!  They make a lot of noise if they have a bad dental exam or if exams in the neighboring towns are better, because mine is the only toothpaste in town.

Then I have customers who don't really care about their teeth.  Maybe their parents, and parents' parents, had bad teeth and, well, they turned out just fine!  Others don't have money, or don't want to spend money on their teeth - other priorities.  Then there are those who don't like the taste, or have an allergic reaction to some ingredient in the toothpaste.  Nothing I do for them seems to make a difference; what am I expected to do with these people?

Every day is a different dilemma.  Take today, for instance: weather forecasters are predicting at least 10 inches of snow, but no one is certain what time the storm will hit.  This is a huge problem because - oh, did I forget to mention? - my customers have to come to the plant to get their toothpaste.

So I have to make a decision - do I close the plant and lose a day of production, or operate as close to business-as-usual as possible?  Naturally I'm concerned about the safety of my employees and customers who will have to drive to work or pick-up toothpaste.  But I'm on a very tight production schedule, and there are teeth to clean.  I've got a business to run, and to do that I have to have a business strategy that controls costs, takes care of employees, manages relationships with suppliers, and satisfies government regulators.  Even one day of lost production and no product to offer, on a business plan as tight as mine, will impact my ability to provide a high-quality product.

I'm open to suggestions.  If you think you would know what to do, keep in mind that:

• I am required by the state to operate my business no less than 180 days per year, and
• My customers aren't willing to come to the plant for their product when the weather turns nice and they want to take vacation (this started long, long ago when many of them were farmers and needed to work the fields, by the way!).  
• My employees are under a collective agreement that says they don't work more than 183 days per year.
• I know that when they don't come to get their toothpaste every day (over the summer) many of them stop brushing their teeth!  So when production starts up again, it's all I can do to get them thinking about dental hygiene for a good six weeks or so!

I gotta business to run, and yes, it is 2013.  Got any ideas?