Mentors available right here!
For all prospective, current, and even past master six sigma folk, I'd like to emphasize that we here in the Cove are always ready to act as mentors, advisors, sounding boards, and even crying towels when necessary.
Even though many of us are trained in all the same techniques used in many Six Sigma programs, we often come across as being prejudiced against Six Sigma.
The truth is most of us who SEEM prejudiced against Six Sigma are merely appalled at the number of charlatans who purport to teach Six Sigma and give fancy certificates for a high price, but who don't know S--T from Sigma and cannot possibly transfer knowledge to students when they don't have any themselves.
Let me suggest that a "fair" starting point for a Six Sigma Body of Knowledge is the one freely available at ASQ (start here
http://www.asq.org/certification/six-sigma/index.html and follow links)
Let me stress this BOK is not universally accepted, but it is well-organized and freely accessible to use as a start.
Some of our Cove members are VERY well-versed in Six Sigma and hold important positions with large companies as Master Black Belts (not a universally agreed designation, either, I might add) and will frequently help struggling newbies with a kind word or a push in the right direction.
There is a possibility your company management is simply enamored with the term "Six Sigma" and may not realize that a good Quality practitioner who holds a Certified Quality Engineer certificate from ASQ uses exactly the same tools as Six Sigma, PLUS a few more not in the Six Sigma tool kit. A good ASQ CQE who has the faith and confidence of management can accomplish great things!
Advice about statistics learning is helpful if your organization deals in tens of thousands to millions of components, parts, and products. Many smaller organizations find the tools of common sense and mistake proofing much more valuable than trying to run SPC calculations on a production run of 100 pieces.
In summary, the best way to deal with a Mentor is to say,
"I have this problem" rather than
"Teach me Six Sigma" when what you really need is the problem solved which may not entail Six Sigma tools at all!
Mentors work best in advising folks on what they
need, not necessarily what they
want, because often those are two different items!
So try us out. What does your company really need? What are the problems it faces? Perhaps there are other solutions. We can't tell if we don't know the problems.