System

Where the system stops and asks

Every place the system will not continue on its own, what is waiting there, and who can let it through.

Gates

Deliberate, not incidental

Stopped right now

Across every gate, each counting its own kind of thing

Held at quality

$351

1 jobs off the machine, not yet released

Awaiting a signature

Purchase orders above the raiser's own limit

Gate	Where it sits	Stopped here	Released by	What gets out without it
Quality release	Between the receipt and the closure of a works order	1 works order $351	Quality & Laboratory	Goods reach the rack, get picked and get invoiced before anybody has looked at the readings. This is the gate that cannot be automated away.
Purchase approval	Before a purchase order can be sent to a supplier	4 purchase orders $391,820	Whoever's limit covers the value	A clerk commits a quarter of a million dollars because nothing asked whether they were allowed to.
Credit	Before an order can be picked or despatched	2 held on credit	Finance & Administration	Stock goes out to an account that is already past its limit, and the exposure is only found when the invoice ages.
Pallet hold	Before a pallet can be picked off the rack	0 pallets out of a passed run	Quality & Laboratory	The whole batch is quarantined instead of the pallets that were affected, or worse, none of it is. 151 more pallets are in the bay on rejected batches, which is a different thing.
Three-way match	Between a supplier invoice and payment	24 receipts not yet billed $4,228,815	Accounts Payable	An invoice is paid for goods that were never received, or at a price nobody agreed to.
Period lock	Before anything can be posted into a closed month	10 months closed to posting	Finance & Administration, and it is recorded	A figure moves after the accounts were reported, and the reported number stops being the number.
Quotation acceptance	Before a quotation becomes an order	8 quotations out	The customer, then Sales	Work is scheduled against something nobody agreed to buy.

A gate is not a delay somebody failed to remove. Every one of these exists because of what happens when the work flows past it unchecked, and each has one role that can let it through.