Increased consumer demand as well as increased competition, has led organizations to need continuous improvement. The Lean and Six Sigma philosophies, widely applied in industry, have shown important results in terms of process improvement, which has attracted the attention of many organisations, including services.This research aims to characterize the degree of knowledge and implementation of Lean and/or Six Sigma philosophies in Portuguese laboratories. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire applied to a population of laboratories, including clinical, testing and calibration laboratories, as well as accredited and non-accredited laboratories. The results show that most laboratories are not familiar with Lean and/or Six Sigma philosophies. Furthermore, it is noted that the laboratories that have implemented these philosophies are those with the highest number of employees and turnover.