Private non-profit universities and research institutes have their analytical laboratories exposed to a competitive environment, as well as to discontinuity and limitation of financial resources offered by funding agencies. Aiming to operational self-sustainability, these laboratories are searching complementary resources by increasing the offer of specialized services to different industrial sectors. However, service activities are distinct from R&D&I activities, because the former are characterized by immediate or short-term need and the latter, by long-term need. In this context, it becomes necessary to evaluate the trade-off between competitive and cooperative environments (services and research), and to establish sustainable competitive strategies, as well as management practices and techniques that assure operational efficiency without quality losses or decrease in the service level. The objective of this work is, therefore, to analyze the performance of LabDRX at PUC-Rio in a self-sustainable scenario through discrete-event simulation. It was found that, in the self- sustainable scenario considered, the performance of the Laboratory satisfies the contracting policy agreed with the customer categories, as long as one makes simultaneous implementation of a limited urgent queue discipline and a capacity increase through an innovation proposal: Distance Rietveld. The methodology presented in this work can be adapted for many other similar laboratories searching for operational sustainability by offering technological services to industry.